1988 Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council election

Elections to the Wigan council were held on Thursday, 5 May 1988, with one third of the seats up for election as well as an extra vacancy in Beech Hill. Following the previous election, two by-elections had taken place, with the Labour Party successfully defending their seats in Ince and Newtown. This year's election seen an improvement in participation, with all wards fought and five parties contesting in some form, by way of the Greens fielding their first ever slate of four candidates and the return of long-time Communist contender H. Kedward in Leigh Central. Despite this, the number of candidates contesting actually fell by five from the previous year's 64, as the turbulent new merger of the old SDP-Liberal Alliance, Social and Liberal Democrats, fielded just half the number of candidates they'd managed in 1987 and, at 11, the lowest since 1980.

Map of the results of the 1988 Wigan council election.

This was reflected by the results on the night as the SLD suffered a large drop in their vote, returning them to third place behind the Conservatives and reducing their vote total to four figure for the first time since the aforementioned 1980 election. The overwhelming beneficiary of SLD losses were the Labour, helping their vote share hit a record high of 68.6% and the highest vote figure gained - beyond the anomaly of 1979 - since the council's creation. Seat wise, Labour made two gains of the night, one in the SLD-Labour marginal of Aspull-Standish and the other in the more significant SLD bastion of Langtree, which until this point had only elected SLD candidates, where Labour managed to equal SLD votes and draw the larger straw. Labour achieved a record capture of seats, with opposition wins curtailed to an exceptional SLD performance - and gain - of one of the seats fought in Beech Hill and a Conservative hold in their bastion of Swinley. Overall turnout fell from 37.1% to 32.4%.[1]

Election result
Wigan Local Election Result 1988
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Labour 23 2 1 +1 92.0 68.6 52,325 +9.3%
  Conservative 1 0 0 0 4.0 17.1 13,083 +1.8%
  SLD 1 1 2 -1 4.0 12.6 9,640 -10.5%
  Green 0 0 0 0 0.0 1.5 1,155 +1.5%
  Communist 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 62 +0.1%

This result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the Council after the elections:

Party Previous council New council
Labour 62 63
Social and Liberal Democrats 6 5
Conservatives 3 3
Independent Labour 1 1
Green 0 0
Communist 0 0
Total 72 72
Working majority  52   54 

Ward results
Abram[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour A. Bennett 2,094 86.8 +6.8
Green P. Tarleton 319 13.2 +13.2
Majority 1,775 73.5 +4.8
Turnout 2,413 25.2 -9.6
Labour hold Swing -3.2
Ashton-Golborne[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour T. Jones 2,140 78.1 +12.8
Conservative S. Edwards 598 21.8 +0.6
Majority 1,542 56.3 +12.2
Turnout 2,738 27.9 -6.6
Labour hold Swing +6.1
Aspull-Standish[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour A. Durkin 2,201 47.9 +6.6
SLD P. Wilson 1,645 35.8 -6.2
Conservative K. Hart 751 16.3 -0.4
Majority 556 12.1 +11.4
Turnout 4,597 43.5 -5.9
Labour gain from SLD Swing +6.4
Atherton[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour J. Clark 2,755 81.8 +5.6
Conservative M. Hatton 613 18.2 -5.6
Majority 2,142 63.6 +11.3
Turnout 3,368 35.9 +0.9
Labour hold Swing +5.6
Bedford-Astley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour J. Jones 1,954 62.5 +4.0
Conservative D. Angell 861 27.5 +27.5
Green S. Philbrock 310 9.9 +9.9
Majority 1,093 35.0 +18.0
Turnout 3,125 31.5 -2.7
Labour hold Swing -11.7
Beech Hill[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
SLD J. McGarty 1,725 47.7 +18.8
Labour T. Bishop 1,621 44.9 -12.3
SLD L. Marshall 1,603
Labour S. Turner 1,437
Conservative E. Bispham 266 7.4 -6.4
Conservative J. Whitehead 194
Majority 104 2.9 -25.3
Turnout 3,612 40.9 +4.8
SLD gain from Labour Swing +15.5
Labour hold Swing
Bryn[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour C. Brown 2,532 82.0 +9.1
Conservative R. Clayton 557 18.0 +3.0
Majority 1,975 63.9 +6.1
Turnout 3,089 31.3 -6.2
Labour hold Swing +3.0
Hindley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour A. Robinson 2,394 87.2 +54.5
Green A. Wood 352 12.8 +12.8
Majority 2,042 74.3 +52.8
Turnout 2,746 28.5 -7.9
Labour hold Swing +20.8
Hindley Green[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour S. Murphy 2,198 80.6 +8.4
SLD J. Cranfield 530 19.4 -8.4
Majority 1,668 61.1 +16.9
Turnout 2,728 24.1 -4.1
Labour hold Swing +8.4
Hindsford[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour W. Smith 2,543 78.6 +14.6
Conservative M. Sharland 691 21.4 +21.4
Majority 1,852 57.3 +29.3
Turnout 3,234 30.2 -1.7
Labour hold Swing -3.4
Hope Carr[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour A. Roberts 2,013 63.0 +7.1
Conservative E. Manson 1,183 37.0 +5.8
Majority 830 26.0 +1.3
Turnout 3,196 32.1 -4.0
Labour hold Swing +0.6
Ince[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour J. Horrocks 2,074 89.0 +1.2
Conservative D. Edwards 165 7.1 +1.1
SLD S. Cairns 92 3.9 -2.4
Majority 1,909 81.9 +0.5
Turnout 2,331 29.3 -4.7
Labour hold Swing +0.0
Langtree[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour J. Ball 1,924 41.8 +2.9
SLD K. White 1,924 41.8 -2.5
Conservative J. Wolstenholme 753 16.4 -0.4
Majority 0 0.0 -5.5
Turnout 4,601 42.0 -4.3
Labour gain from SLD Swing +2.9
Leigh Central[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour G. Macdonald 2,032 82.1 N/A
Conservative M. Turner 380 15.3 N/A
Communist H. Kedward 62 2.5 N/A
Majority 1,652 66.8 N/A
Turnout 2,474 27.6 N/A
Labour hold Swing N/A
Leigh East[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour J. Riley 1,973 70.9 +9.2
Conservative M. Stewart 810 29.1 +5.1
Majority 1,163 41.8 +4.1
Turnout 2,783 27.0 -2.3
Labour hold Swing +2.0
Lightshaw[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour N. Holt 2,857 73.3 +14.7
Conservative J. Wright 721 18.5 -7.6
SLD J. Wilson 318 8.2 -7.1
Majority 2,136 54.8 +22.3
Turnout 3,896 36.8 -2.1
Labour hold Swing +11.1
Newtown[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour C. Hitchen 2,352 86.5 +9.5
Conservative I. Nicholson 368 13.5 +0.1
Majority 1,984 72.9 +9.3
Turnout 2,720 29.9 -4.6
Labour hold Swing +4.7
Norley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour E. Maddocks 2,337 88.5 +3.0
Conservative J. Carrington 167 6.3 -0.4
SLD R. Richardson 136 5.1 -2.6
Majority 2,170 82.2 +4.4
Turnout 2,640 33.5 -4.0
Labour hold Swing +1.7
Orrell[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour E. Swift 2,262 59.9 +13.5
Conservative W. Smith 1,515 40.1 +8.0
Majority 747 19.8 +5.5
Turnout 3,777 37.0 -3.8
Labour hold Swing +2.7
Swinley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative W. Chadwick 2,019 48.3 +8.3
Labour M. Gallagher 1,627 38.9 +1.9
SLD W. Claypole 359 8.6 -14.4
Green G. Wood 174 4.1 +4.1
Majority 392 3.4 +6.4
Turnout 4,179 46.7 -6.3
Conservative hold Swing +3.2
Tyldesley East[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour A. Stephenson 2,086 67.5 +11.5
SLD A. Shaw 1,003 32.5 -11.5
Majority 1,083 35.0 +23.0
Turnout 3,089 28.7 -6.9
Labour hold Swing +11.5
Whelley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour A. Coyle 2,174 81.4 +4.4
Conservative F. Sidebotham 310 11.6 -0.6
SLD L. Peet 185 6.9 -3.8
Majority 1,864 69.8 +5.0
Turnout 2,669 30.3 -5.7
Labour hold Swing +2.5
Winstanley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour R. Winkworth 2,031 54.1 +11.8
SLD C. Hilton 1,723 45.9 +1.1
Majority 308 8.2 +5.7
Turnout 3,754 32.1 -10.1
Labour hold Swing +5.3
Worsley Mesnes[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labour W. Brogan 2,151 85.8 +12.1
Conservative J. Grimshaw 355 14.2 +4.8
Majority 1,796 71.7 +14.9
Turnout 2,506 25.3 -6.2
Labour hold Swing +3.6
gollark: I see. Not really sure about *that*, but sure.
gollark: I mean, it might at least teach very basic things like "things need support to stay up".
gollark: What's an ofimatics?
gollark: Not in the sense of "this is how you word", ideally with actual explanations of what's going on and why.
gollark: I think a more practical thing might be to teach computer use, though.

References
  1. "Wigan Council results from 1973 to 2008" (PDF). wigan.gov.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 November 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
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