The first elections to the newly created Leeds City Council were held on 10 May 1973, with the entirety of the 96 seat council – three seats for each of the 32 wards – up for vote. The Local Government Act 1972 stipulated that the elected members were to shadow and eventually take over from the predecessor corporation on 1 April 1974. The order in which the councillors were elected dictated their term serving, with third-place candidates serving two years and up for re-election in 1975, second-placed three years expiring in 1976 and 1st-placed five years until 1978.
As well as replacing the County Borough of Leeds, the new council included:
The election resulted in no overall control.[1]
This result has the following consequences for the total number of seats on the council after the elections:
| valign=top colspan="2" style="width: 230px" | Party | valign=top style="width: 30px" | New council |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 44 | ||
| Conservatives | 38 | ||
| Liberals | 14 | ||
| Total | 96 | ||
| Working majority | |||
