Regional elections were held in Scotland on Thursday 8 May 1986, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The previous elections had been held in 1982. The elections took place a year before the Conservative's third general election victory. Elections took place in England and Wales on the same day.
National results
!colspan=2|Parties !Votes !Votes % !+/- !Wards !NetGain/Loss
|43.9 | |223
|18.2 | |36
|16.9 | |65
|15.1 | |40
|4.8 | |79
!colspan=2|Total!! !! 45.2!! ?? !!524 !!
Party performance Labour continued to make gains, increasing their number of councillors in most of the areas contested. The Conservatives suffered heavy losses, losing control of Lothian council to Labour and Grampian and Tayside councils to no overall control. They lost all their Councillors in Dumfries and Galloway. The SNP vote failed to recover from its decline since 1980.
Results by council area +Scottish Regional election results, 1986 Council Lab Con All SNP Other Total seats Turnout Control Details Borders 0 6 (-2) 2 (-1) 2 (+1) 14 (+1) 23 37.02% holdDetails Central 23 (+1) 4 1 5 1 (-1) 34 47.49% holdDetails Dumfries and Galloway 7 (+3) 0 (-4) 4 (+2) 5 (+2) 19 (-3) 35 40.66% holdDetails Fife 30 (+3) 4 (-5) 8 (+3) 2 (+1) 2 (-1) 46 46.74% holdDetails Grampian 18 (+2) 15 (-11) 12 (+7) 9 (+5) 3 57 35.61% gain from ConservativesDetails Highland 6 (+1) 2 (+1) 2 (-1) 2 (+1) 40 (-2) 52 41.85% HoldDetails Lothian 30 (+7) 13 (-8) 3 2 (+1) 1 49 49.21% gain from NOCDetails Orkney 0 - - - 24 24 ??% HoldDetails Shetland 4 (+1) - - - 21 (-1) 25 ??% HoldDetails Strathclyde 88 (+8) 6 (-8) 5 (+1) 1 (-1) 3 103 45.46% holdDetails Tayside 20 (+8) 14 (-13) 1 (+1) 9 (+4) 2 46 47.64% gain from ConservativeDetails Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) 0 - - - 30 30 ??% HoldDetails
References