1982 Merton London Borough Council election

← 1978

6 May 1982

1986 →

All 57 council seats on
Merton London Borough Council

Turnout

47.5% (

1.1%)^[1]^[2]

	First party	Second party

Party	Conservative	Labour
Last election	39 seats, 52.6%	15 seats, 26.3%
Seats won	44	13
Seat change	5	2
Popular vote	82,245	40,810
Percentage	51.2%	25.4%
Swing	1.4%	9.3%

Council leader before election

Harry Cowd
Conservative

Council leader after election

Harry Cowd
Conservative

Elections for the London Borough of Merton were held on 6 May 1982 to elect members of Merton London Borough Council in London, England. This was on the same day as other local elections in England and Scotland.^[1]

The whole council was up for election and the incumbent majority Conservative administration maintained its overall control of the council.^[1]

Background

At the last election, the Conservatives had won a majority of ten seats on the council.^[2] The Labour Party, who had won 15 seats at that election, subsequently lost a seat in a by-election in Ravensbury on 22 October 1981 to the newly formed SDP-Liberal Alliance.^[1]

Results

The Conservatives maintained their overall majority of the council, gaining four seats from Labour and three from Longthornton and Tamworth Residents Association; the latter lost all of its three seats in Longthornton.^[1] At the last election, the Conservatives did not contest the ward of Longthornton.^[2]

The Conservatives gained three seats from Labour in Abbey and one seat from Labour in St Helier. However, the Conservatives lost two seats to Labour, one in Phipps Bridge and the other in Graveney.^[1]^[2]

The SDP-Liberal Alliance failed to hold onto the seat it had won in the by-election in Ravensbury, where it polled behind Labour and the Conservatives. Nevertheless, the Alliance won 21.5% of the vote share and was within 6,000 votes of the Labour Party; this was a significant improvement on the local electoral record of its predecessor, the Liberal Party, which had won 8.3% of the vote share in the 1978 election. In the face of the Alliance's surge, all recontesting parties lost vote share.^[1] By seat share, this was the worst result for Labour in Merton since 1968.^[3]

Merton Local Election Result 1982^[1]^[2]
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
Conservative	44	7	2	5	77.2%	51.2%	82,245	1.4%
Labour	13	2	4	2	22.8%	25.4%	40,810	9.3%
Alliance	0	0	0	0	0%	21.5%	34,513	n/a
Longthornton and Tamworth Residents	0	0	3	3	0%	1.5%	2,438	2.4%
Ecology	0	0	0	0	0%	0.2%	370	n/a
National Front	0	0	0	0	0%	0.1%	151	0.2%
Independent	0	0	0	0	0%	0.0%	67	n/a

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "London Borough Council Elections 6 May 1982" (PDF). Greater London Council. 1982. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "London Borough Council Elections 4 May 1978" (PDF). Greater London Council. 1978. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
^ "London Borough of Merton Results Summary 1964-2012" (PDF). Merton Electoral Services. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2018.

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See also Elections in London Boroughs Middlesex County Council elections

v t e Council elections in Greater London
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Kensington and Chelsea	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Kingston upon Thames	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Lambeth	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Lewisham	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Merton	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Newham	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Redbridge	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Richmond upon Thames	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Southwark	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Sutton	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Tower Hamlets	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Waltham Forest	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Wandsworth	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Westminster	1964 1968 1971 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Greater London	1964 1967 1970 1973 1977 1981
See also: London-wide elections Wards Boundary changes

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