1986 Merton London Borough Council election

At the last election, the Conservatives had remained in overall majority control of the council, winning 44 seats. The Labour Party was returned as the only opposition party, with 13 seats.^[3] In the same election, Longthornton and Tamworth Residents Association lost all their three seats to the Conservatives.^[2]

Following the death of Cllr. Michael Page, at a by-election in Longthornton on 15 March 1984, the Longthornton and Tamworth Residents Association regained one of their seats from the Conservatives.^[2]

Merton Local Election Result 1986^{[1][n 1][n 2]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	29	0	15	15	50.9%	41.1%	69,161	10.1%
	Labour	25	12	0	12	43.9%	35.7%	59,974	10.3%
	Longthornton and Tamworth Residents	3	3	0	3	5.3%	2.3%	3,919	0.8%
	Alliance	0	0	0	0	0%	20.4%	34,325	1.1%
	Independent	0	0	0	0	0%	0.4%	630	n/a
	National Front	0	0	0	0	0	0.1%	154

In Durnsford, future Prime Minister Theresa May was first elected to public office, holding the seat for the Conservative Party and beating Tony Colman, the future Labour MP for Putney, who also later led Merton Council between 1991 and 1997.

Notes

References