1976 Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council election

← 1975 6 May 1976 1978 →
One third of 78 seats on Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council 40 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Labour Conservative Liberal Seats before 52 23 1 Seats won 16 10 0 Seats after 49 26 1 Seat change 3 3   Fourth party Fifth party   Party Ind. Labour Party Independent Seats before 1 1 Seats won 0 0 Seats after 1 1 Seat change
Majority party before election Labour Majority party after election Labour

The 1976 Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council election was held on 6 May 1976. A third of the seats on the Council were up for election, with each of the 26 council wards returning one councillor by first-past-the-post. The election was held on the same day as other local elections.

Labour maintained a comfortable majority on the Council after the election, despite losing three seats to the Conservatives.^[1]

Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council election results, 1976

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	26	16	0	3	3	61.5	46.2	30,768	7.4
	Conservative	24	10	3	0	3	38.5	40.2	26,794	4.8
	Liberal	19	0	0	0		0	12.6	8,376	6.7
	Ind. Labour Party	1	0	0	0		0	0.5	366	2.3
	National Front	1	0	0	0		0	0.3	185	0.3
	Communist	2	0	0	0		0	0.2	136

The election resulted in the following composition of the Council: