1981 West Midlands County Council election explained

Election Name:	1981 West Midlands County Council election
Flag Image:	Flag of the West Midlands County.svg
Type:	Parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Party Colour:	yes
Previous Election:	1977 West Midlands County Council election
Previous Year:	1977
Next Year:	Abolished
Seats For Election:	104 seats to the West Midlands County Council
Majority Seats:	52
Election Date:	7 May 1981
Turnout:	36.6%
Party1:	Labour Party (UK)
Last Election1:	18 seats, 31.3
Seats1:	74
Seat Change1:	56
Percentage1:	50.0%
Swing1:	18.7%
Party2:	Conservative Party (UK)
Last Election2:	82 seats, 58.7%
Seats2:	25
Seat Change2:	57
Percentage2:	36.7%
Swing2:	22.0%
Party3:	Liberal Party (UK)
Last Election3:	3 seats, 4.3%
Seats3:	5
Seat Change3:	2
Percentage3:	9.8%
Swing3:	5.5%
Council control
Posttitle:	Council control after election
Before Election:	Conservative
After Election:	Labour

Local elections to the West Midlands County Council, a Metropolitan County Council encompassing the West Midlands, were held on 7 May 1981, resulting in large swings to Labour, giving them control of the council.

This was the last election to the West Midlands County Council, after metropolitan county councils were scrapped on 31 March 1986 under the Local Government Act 1985 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The councils' abolition followed several high profile clashes between mostly Labour metropolitan county councils and the Conservative government over issues, including spending and rates charges.

Council composition

After the election the composition of the council was:

↓

74	25	5
Labour	Conservative	Liberal

Borough summary

|- class="unsortable" align="centre"!rowspan=2 align="left"|Borough! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Labour!colspan=2 bgcolor=""| Conservative!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Liberal!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Green!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Independent!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others|-|align="left"|Birmingham|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|49.7|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|30|35.0|9|12.4|3|0.8|0|0.1|0|2.0|0|42|-|align="left"|Coventry|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|49.3|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|9|37.1|3|12.3|0|0.0|0|0.0|0|1.4|0|12|-|align="left"|Dudley|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|57.2|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|9|40.2|2|1.7|0|0.7|0|0.0|0|0.2|0|11|-|align="left"|Sandwell|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|60.5|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|9|28.9|1|9.9|2|0.0|0|0.0|0|0.7|0|12|-|align="left"|Solihull|31.8|2|bgcolor="lightblue"|46.1|bgcolor="lightblue"|5|12.6|0|0.5|0|0.0|0|9.0|0|7|-|align="left"|Walsall|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|44.1|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|7|35.0|3|10.3|0|0.0|0|3.8|0|6.8|0|10|-|align="left"|Wolverhampton|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|53.0|bgcolor="#EEA2AD"|8|42.1|2|3.4|0|0.0|0|0.7|0|0.9|0|8|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|50.0|74|36.7|25|9.8|5|0.5|0|0.4|0|2.5|0|104|-|