The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the
Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom.
The current m ...
and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject the Mayor's draft statutory strategies. The London Assembly was established in 2000. It is also able to investigate other issues of importance to Londoners (most notably
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...
or
environmental matters), publish its findings and recommendations, as well as make proposals to the Mayor.
Assembly Members
The Assembly comprises 25 Assembly Members elected using the
additional member system of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, with 13 seats needed for a majority. Elections take place every four years, at the same time as for the
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
. There are 14 geographical super-constituencies each electing one Member, with a further 11 members elected from a party list to make the total Assembly Members from each party proportional to the votes cast for that party across the whole of London using a modified
D'Hondt allocation. A party must win at least 5% of the party list vote in order to win any seats. Members of the London Assembly have the
post-nominal title
Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...
'AM'. The annual salary for a London Assembly Member is approximately £59,000.
Former Assembly Members
Since its creation in 2000, fifteen Assembly Members have subsequently been elected to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
:
David Lammy,
Meg Hillier
Dame Margaret Olivia Hillier (born 14 February 1969), known as Meg Hillier, is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney South and Shoreditch at the 2005 general election, was a ...
,
Diana Johnson
Dame Diana Ruth Johnson (born 25 July 1966) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull North since the 2005 general election. A member of the Labour Party, she was elected as Chair of the ...
and
Florence Eshalomi
Florence Dauta Eshalomi ('' née'' Nosegbe; born 18 September 1980) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Vauxhall since 2019. She previously served as the Member of the London As ...
for Labour;
Andrew Pelling
Andrew John Pelling (born 20 August 1959) is a British politician. First elected as a Conservative he was an independent Member of Parliament for Croydon Central and on 30 March 2010 announced his intention to contest the seat as an Independen ...
,
Bob Neill,
Angie Bray,
Bob Blackman
Robert John Blackman (born 26 April 1956) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 C ...
,
Eric Ollerenshaw
Eric Ollerenshaw OBE (born 26 March 1950) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lancaster and Fleetwood from 2010 to 2015.
He was born and grew up in Lancashire and was educated at Hyde County Gr ...
,
Victoria Borwick
Victoria Lorne Peta Borwick, Baroness Borwick (''née'' Poore, 26 April 1956) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as the Member of Parliament for Kensington from 2015 to 2017, losing her seat and becoming t ...
,
James Cleverly
James Spencer Cleverly (born 4 September 1969) is a British politician and Army Reserve officer who has served as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been ...
,
Kit Malthouse
Christopher Laurie "Kit" Malthouse (born 27 October 1966) is a British politician and businessman who served as Secretary of State for Education from 6 September to 25 October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as C ...
,
Kemi Badenoch
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch ( ; née Adegoke, 2 January 1980) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for International Trade, President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. She previously served i ...
and
Gareth Bacon
Gareth Andrew Bacon (born 7 April 1972) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he was a member of the London Assembly from 2008 until he stood down ...
for the Conservatives; and
Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Choona Featherstone, Baroness Featherstone, (''née'' Ryness; born 20 December 1951) is a British politician, businesswoman and Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.
Prior to entering politics, Featherstone was a successful bu ...
for the Liberal Democrats. One Assembly Member,
Jenny Jones, was appointed to the House of Lords as the first life peer for the Green Party, and simultaneously sat in the Assembly until May 2016.
Sally Hamwee,
Graham Tope and
Toby Harris were life peers elected to the Assembly, while
Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Choona Featherstone, Baroness Featherstone, (''née'' Ryness; born 20 December 1951) is a British politician, businesswoman and Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.
Prior to entering politics, Featherstone was a successful bu ...
and
Dee Doocey were appointed peers after leaving the Assembly. In addition,
Val Shawcross
Valerie Shawcross is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2016 to 2018. A member of the Labour Co-operative parties, she was Member of the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark from 2000 to 2016. ...
, Assembly Member for
Lambeth and Southwark was selected, but unsuccessful, as the Labour parliamentary candidate for the constituency of
Bermondsey and Old Southwark at the 2010 general election, as was
Navin Shah
Navin Fakirchand Shah (born September 1946) is a British Labour Party politician.
Shah moved to the United Kingdom in 1973 to study at University College London. He joined the Labour Party in 1977 and was elected to Harrow London Borough Cou ...
who stood for Labour in
Harrow East
Harrow East is a constituency in Greater London created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bob Blackman, a Conservative.
Constituency profile
The censuses of 2001 and 2011 show the overwhelming ...
in 2017.
Andrew Dismore
Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...
,
Graham Tope, and the late
Richard Tracey
Richard Patrick Tracey, (8 February 1943 – 19 March 2020), was a British Conservative Party politician, journalist and news presenter. He was the Member of Parliament for Surbiton from 1983 to 1997, and served as Minister for Sport between ...
are all former MPs who were later elected to the Assembly. One Assembly Member –
John Biggs, former AM for
City and East – became the directly elected
Mayor of Tower Hamlets
The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in east London, England. The first election for this position occurred on 21 October 2010, taking on the executive function of the borough counci ...
in 2015 until 2022.
Structure of the Assembly
London Assembly elections have been held under the
additional member system, with a set number of constituencies elected on a first-past-the-post system and a set number London-wide on a closed party list system. Terms are for four years, so despite the delayed 2020 election, which was held in 2021, the following election will be in 2024.
In December 2016, an Electoral Reform Bill was introduced which would have changed the election system to
first-past-the-post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...
. At the
2017 general election, the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
manifesto proposed changing how the Assembly is elected to first-past-the-post.
However, since the general election of 2017, which resulted in a hung Parliament with the Conservatives and the
Democratic Unionist Party in a
confidence and supply arrangement, no action has been taken with regard to the electoral arrangements of the London Assembly, and the 2020 election, delayed to 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, was held on the current electoral system of AMS (constituencies and regional list)
On 12 December 2018, following
Peter Whittle's departure from UKIP, he and
David Kurten
David Michael Kurten (born 22 March 1971) is a British politician who has served as leader of the Heritage Party since September 2020. He previously was a member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide from 2016 to 2021. Elected as a UK Ind ...
disbanded the UKIP grouping and formed the
Brexit Alliance
The Brexit Alliance was a British political technical group formed on 12 December 2018 by Peter Whittle and David Kurten. They were elected to the London Assembly in 2016 as UK Independence Party (UKIP) representatives, but when Whittle anno ...
group.
In March 2019, following the departure of
Tom Copley and
Fiona Twycross to take up full-time Deputy Mayor roles,
Murad Qureshi
Murad Qureshi ( bn, মুরাদ কোরেশী; born 27 May 1965) is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician, and a former Member of the London Assembly.
Early life and education
Qureshi was born in Greater Manchester, but ...
and
Alison Moore replaced them as
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
Assembly Members. The end of the term in office for AMs was extended from May 2020 to May 2021, as no elections were being held during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
List of current Assembly Members
List of chairs of the London Assembly
Committees
The Assembly has formed the following committees:
* Audit Panel, chaired by
Neil Garratt
* Budget and Performance Committee, chaired by
Peter Fortune
Peter Fortune is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician serving as the Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Bexley and Bromley (London Assembly constituency), Bexley and Bromley since 2021. At the time of his election, he ...
* Confirmation Hearings Committee
* Economy Committee, chaired by
Hina Bokhari
* Environment Committee, chaired by
Zack Polanski
Zack Polanski (born 1982) is the deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, having served in the role since 7 September 2022. He has been a Londonwide member of the London Assembly (AM) for the party since May 2021. Polanski is also ...
* Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee, chaired by
Anne Clarke
* GLA Oversight Committee, chaired by
Leonie Cooper
Leonie Alison Cooper (born 27 December 1959) is a British Labour & Co-operative Party politician. Since May 2016 she has represented Merton and Wandsworth on the London Assembly. She has served as a Councillor on the Wandsworth London Boroug ...
* Health Committee, chaired by
Krupesh Hirani
Krupesh Jadavji Hirani (born 29 November 1985) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has been the London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow since 2021. He previously represented Dudden Hill ward on Brent Council from 2010 to ...
* Housing Committee, chaired by
Sem Moema
Semakaleng Mokgadi Moema (born 4 November 1984) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the London Assembly Member for North East since 2021.
Early life
Moema was born in Islington to South African parents who had fled Apartheid i ...
* Planning and Regeneration Committee, chaired by
Sakina Sheikh
* Police and Crime Committee, chaired by
Susan Hall
Susan Mary Hall is a British Conservative Party politician who has been a Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide since 2017. She has been the leader of the London Conservatives on the Assembly since December 2019.
Political career ...
* Transport Committee, chaired by
Siân Berry
Siân Rebecca Berry (born 9 July 1974) is a British politician who served as Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Jonathan Bartley from 2018 to 2021, and as its sole leader from July to October 2021. From 2006 to 2007, s ...
The Police and Crime Committee was set up under the terms of the
Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 in order to scrutinise the work of
Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, which replaced the
Metropolitan Police Authority
The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) (2000–2012) was the local police authority responsible for scrutinising and supporting the work of the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Polic ...
.
Result maps
Note that these maps only show constituency results and not list results.
File:Greater London UK assembly election 2000 map.svg, 2000 results
File:Greater London UK assembly election 2004 map.svg, 2004 results
File:Greater London UK assembly election 2000 map.svg, 2008 results
File:Greater London UK assembly election 2012 map.svg, 2012 results
File:Greater London UK assembly election 2016 map.svg, 2016 results
File:Greater London UK assembly map 2021.svg, 2021 results
References
External links
London AssemblyLondon Assembly publicationsCity Hall LabourConservatives in the London AssemblyLondon Assembly Liberal Democrats
{{London
Local government in London
Regional assemblies in England
2000 establishments in England