Local elections were held in the United Kingdom in 1985. The projected share of the vote was Labour 39%, Conservative 32%, Liberal-SDP Alliance 26%. In terms of seats, both Conservatives and Labour lost some ground to the benefit of the Liberal-SDP Alliance.

The overall results were as follows;

Conservative losses: 202
Number of Conservative councillors: 10,191

Labour losses: 124
Number of Labour councillors: 8,746

Liberal-SDP Alliance gains: 302
Number of Liberal-SDP Alliance councillors: 2,633