The first election to the Greater London Council (GLC) was held on 9 April 1964.

Quick Facts 100 councillors 51 seats needed for a majority, First party ...

1964 Greater London Council election

← 1961 9 April 1964 1967 →
100 councillors 51 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Bill Fiske Percy Rugg Party Labour Conservative Leader since 1964 1964 Leader's seat Havering Kensington and Chelsea Seats won 64 36 Popular vote 1,063,390 956,543 Percentage 44.6% 40.1%
Leader after election Bill Fiske Labour Party

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The election happened at a time of very high political tension, with a general election due in a few months. The GLC did not come into its powers until 1 April 1965, but spent the first year setting up its committee structure and arranging with its predecessor authorities to take over.

New constituencies to be used for elections to Parliament and also for elections to the GLC had not yet been settled, so the London boroughs were used as multi-member 'first past the post' electoral areas. Westminster was joined with the City of London for this purpose. Each electoral area returned between 2 and 4 councillors.

The first election to the Greater London Council took place a month before the first election to the 32 London borough councils on 7 May 1964.

Less than a month after the election, Marjorie McIntosh (Labour, Hammersmith) died and precipitated a byelection; however, given that the voters had elected the GLC and the new London boroughs, the parties were short of money and the Conservatives decided not to oppose the Labour candidate who was returned unopposed on 18 June. Oliver Galley (Conservative, Harrow, died in October 1965 and the Conservatives retained his seat at a byelection on 27 January 1966.^[5] By the end of the term, there were two seats vacant due to the resignations of Sir Joseph Haygarth (Conservative, Barnet) and Mrs Mavis Webster (Labour, Waltham Forest).

There was one aldermanic by-election in 1965 caused by the resignation of Donald Soper (Labour). Frederick Lionel Tonge (Labour) was elected by the council on 6 July 1965, to serve until 1967.