 The council seats up for election were previously fought in 1969, when the opposition Labour Party had been in government and had suffered poor results.It was therefore expected Labour would make substantial gains in 1972, although the Conservative position in opinion polls had improved somewhat since the 1971 local elections.Labour did indeed win the bulk of councils, although the continued existence of Conservative aldermen prevented their dominance being as great as the Conservatives' had been in 1969 (aldermen would be abolished by the Local Government Act in 1974 [1978 in Greater London]).