An election to the Assembly of London took place on 1 May 2008, along with the

2008 London mayoral election The 2008 London mayoral election for the office of Mayor of London, England, was held on 1 May 2008. Conservative Party (UK), Conservative candidate Boris Johnson defeated incumbent Labour Party (UK), Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone. It was the th ...

. The Conservatives gained 2 seats, Labour gained one seat, the Liberal Democrats lost two seats, and UKIP were wiped out. Notably, a candidate for the British National Party (BNP) was elected for the first time. The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. Fourteen directly elected constituencies exist, all of which have, to date, only ever been won by the Conservative Party or the Labour Party. An additional eleven members are allocated by a London wide top-up vote with the proviso that parties must win at least five percent of the vote to qualify for the list seats. Prior to these elections, these seats were held by five Liberal Democrats, two Labour Party members, two Green Party members and two One Londoners. The two One London members were elected as candidates for the UK Independence Party, but then joined or supported the breakaway Veritas party and subsequently left Veritas to form One London. Compared to the previous election, two separate factions of RESPECT Unity Coalition stood in 2008: Respect (George Galloway), who supported

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

in the mayoral election, and Left List, who supported Lindsey German (RESPECT's mayoral candidate in 2004).

Results

, - !rowspan=3 colspan=2 , Parties !colspan=10 , Additional member system !rowspan=2 colspan=5 , Total seats , - !colspan=5 , Constituency !colspan=5 , Region , - ! Votes !! % !! +/− !! Seats !! +/− ! Votes !! % !! +/− !! Seats !! +/− ! Total !! +/− !! % , - , - ! style="background-color: #813887, , style="text-align:left;" , Christian Choice^† , style="text-align:right;" , 65,357 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.7 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.3 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:right;" , 70,294 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.9 , style="text-align:right;" , ±0.0 , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:right;" , 0 , style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:right;" , - , - , - , , , Total , , 2,406,289 , , , , , , 14 , , , , 2,389,891 , , , , , , 11 , , , , 25 , , , , † Joint-ticket

Christian Party Christian Party may refer to: *Christian Party of Austria * Christian Party (Lithuania) * Christian Party (Samoa) * Christian Party (St. Maarten) * Christian Party (UK), includes the Scottish Christian Party and the Welsh Christian Party *Christian ...

/ Christian Peoples Alliance candidates standing as "Christian Choice"
# Communist Party of Britain were listed on the ballot paper as "Unity for Peace and Socialism" * Total: 2,389,891 * Overall turnout: 45.28%

Analysis

Labour gained

Brent and Harrow Brent and Harrow is a constituency represented in the London Assembly. It consists of the combined area of the London Borough of Brent and the London Borough of Harrow. After the 2010 general election, the London Borough of Brent had two Lab ...

from Conservative (which had been the only constituency seat changing hands in 2004, having then been gained from Labour). The other 13 constituencies remained unchanged, with the two Liberal Democrat challenges, in South West against the Conservatives, and Lambeth and Southwark against Labour, both showing swings against the Liberal Democrats. The Labour-Conservative marginal, with just 1.3% majority, of Enfield and Haringey was defended by Labour with only a tiny swing to the Conservatives. Thus the Labour campaign for the London Assembly was considerably more successful than their campaign in the local elections held on the same day. The Liberal Democrat and UKIP vote shares were both very poor compared with 2004, with UKIP wiped out entirely, and the Liberal Democrats losing two members. The Labour vote share was up, but because of their capture of a FPTP seat, they did not gain any extra Additional Members against 2004. The biggest vote increase was for the Conservatives, achieving the highest ever showing of any party on the list, 34%; as a result and also due to their loss of one FPTP seat, they went from zero to three additional members. The Conservative record was subsequently surpassed by Labour in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

(41.1%) and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

(40.3%). The British National Party won their first seat on the Assembly by reaching the 5% threshold.

London-wide list candidates

London Assembly representation

��Both UKIP Assembly members had subsequently defected and formed the new

One London One London was a small British political party formed on 15 September 2005 by Damian Hockney and Peter Hulme-Cross. They were elected to the London Assembly in June 2004 as United Kingdom Independence Party representatives, but in February 2 ...

party.

New members

* Gareth Bacon ( Conservative Party, London list) * Richard Barnbrook ( British National Party (subsequently expelled from party), London list) * Andrew Boff ( Conservative Party, London list) * Victoria Borwick ( Conservative Party, London list) * James Cleverly ( Conservative Party, Bexley and Bromley) * Kit Malthouse ( Conservative Party, West Central) *

Steve O'Connell Cllr Stephen O'Connell, AM (born 9 September 1956), known as Steve O'Connell, is a British Conservative politician. He was a member of the London Assembly for Croydon and Sutton from 2008 until 2021 and a councillor in Croydon for Kenley Wa ...

( Conservative Party,

Croydon and Sutton Croydon and Sutton is a constituency represented in the London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a tw ...

) * Caroline Pidgeon ( Liberal Democrats, London list) * Navin Shah ( Labour Party,

) * Richard Tracey ( Conservative Party,

Merton and Wandsworth Merton and Wandsworth is a constituency in the London Assembly. Since the 2016 election, it has been represented by Labour's Leonie Cooper. It consists of the combined area of the London Borough of Merton and the London Borough of Wandsworth. ...

)

Defeated members

* Bob Blackman ( Conservative Party,

) *

Damian Hockney Nicholas Richard Alexander Damian Hockney is a British former politician who was the leader of the One London party from 2005 to 2008. He was a Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide, and was also a member of the Metropolitan Police ...

(

, London list) *

Peter Hulme-Cross Peter Hulme-Cross is a British politician who was a Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide from 2004 to 2008. He was also a member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Career He was one of the United Kingdom Indepen ...

(

, London list) * Geoff Pope ( Liberal Democrats, London list)

Retiring members

Angie Bray Angela Lavinia Bray, Baroness Bray of Coln (born 13 October 1953) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of the London Assembly for West Central from 2000 to 2008, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton ...

( Conservative Party, West Central) *

Sally Hamwee Sally Rachel Hamwee, Baroness Hamwee (born 12 January 1947) is a Liberal Democrat politician and their Lead Home Affairs Spokesperson in the House of Lords. She is a Life Peer and former chair of the London Assembly. Biography Hamwee was ed ...

( Liberal Democrats, London list) *

Elizabeth Howlett Elizabeth Howlett (born November 1938) is a Conservative Party politician and former member of the London Assembly for Merton and Wandsworth. Political career Howlett was elected to the London Assembly on 4 May 2000 and re-elected on 10 Ju ...

( Conservative Party,

) *

Bob Neill Sir Robert James MacGillivray Neill (born 24 June 1952) is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bromley and Chislehurst since a by-election on 29 June 2006, following the ...

( Conservative Party, Bexley and Bromley) * Andrew Pelling ( Conservative Party,

) *

Graham Tope Graham Norman Tope, Baron Tope, (born 30 November 1943) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. He was also a councillor in the London Borough of Sutton until 2014. In 1972, Tope captured the seat of Sutton and Cheam at a par ...

( Liberal Democrats, London list)