ABSTRACT
Con Lab L 1979 45 38 14 General Election result 1980 40 42 13 1981 38 41 17 1982 40 29 27 1983 39 36 2 0 1984 38 37 2 1 1985 32 39 26 1986 34 37 26 1987 38 32 27 1988 39 38 18 1989 36 42 19 1990 33 44 17 1991 35 38 2 2 1992 46 30 2 0 1993 31 39 25 1994 28 40 27 1995 25 47 23 1996 29 43 24 1997 31 44 17 General Election result 1998 33 37 25 1999 34 36 25 Because local elections take place in different parts o f the country each year and never encompass the whole o f Great Britain, it is difficult to translate the results in terms o f nationwide support for the political parties. Since 1979 a number of academics working for media clients have provided instant estimates of what the national vote shares might have been if local elections had been held throughout the country. This table reflects the work o f Ivor Crewe and then John Curtice for the BBC and o f Colin Railings and Michael Thrasher for the Sunday Times. On occasion there have been slight differences between ‘rival’ estimates. This table has attempted to reconcile those differences following analy sis of the full, rather than a sample of, local election results in each year.
