London Assembly

London Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral deliberative assembly of London
History
Founded	3 July 2000
Leadership
Chair	Andrew Boff since 4 May 2023
Deputy Chair	Onkar Sahota since 4 May 2023
Group leaders	Len Duvall, Labour Neil Garratt, Conservative Caroline Russell, Green Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat
Structure
Seats	25
Political groups	Labour (11)   Conservative (8)   Green (3)   Liberal Democrats (2)   Reform UK (1)
Committees	List Audit Budget and Performance Budget Monitoring Confirmation Hearings Economy Education Environment GLA Oversight Health Housing Planning Police and Crime Regeneration Transport
Elections
Voting system	Additional-member system
Last election	2 May 2024
Next election	May 2028
Meeting place
City Hall, Newham, London
Website
www.london.gov.uk

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 two-thirds supermajority, 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 or environmental matters), publish its findings and recommendations, and make proposals to the Mayor.

Assembly members

The Assembly comprises 25 members elected using the additional-member system of proportional representation, with 13 seats needed for a majority. Elections take place every four years, at the same time as those for the mayor of London. There are 14 geographical constituencies, each electing one member, with a further 11 members elected from a party list to make the total number of 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 "AM". The annual salary for a London Assembly member is approximately £60,416.

Former Assembly members

Since its creation in 2000, fifteen Assembly members subsequently were elected to the House of Commons: David Lammy, Meg Hillier, Diana Johnson, and Florence Eshalomi for Labour; Andrew Pelling, Bob Neill, Angie Bray, Bob Blackman, Eric Ollerenshaw, Victoria Borwick, James Cleverly, Kit Malthouse, Kemi Badenoch, and Gareth Bacon for the Conservatives; and Lynne Featherstone for the Liberal Democrats.

One Assembly member, Jenny Jones, was elevated to the House of Lords as the Green Party's first life peer in 2013, continuing to sit in the Assembly until May 2016. Sally Hamwee, Graham Tope, and Toby Harris were already peers when elected to the Assembly, while Lynne Featherstone and Dee Doocey were created life peers after standing down from the Assembly.

Val Shawcross, AM for Lambeth and Southwark, unsuccessfully contested Bermondsey and Old Southwark as the Labour parliamentary candidate at the 2010 general election, and Navin Shah stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Harrow East in 2017. Andrew Dismore, Graham Tope, and the late Richard Tracey are all former MPs later elected to the Assembly. John Biggs, formerly AM for City and East, served as the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets from 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. At the 2017 general election, the Conservative Party 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, was held on the current electoral system of AMS (constituencies and regional lists).

Political party		Assembly members
		2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2021	2024
	Labour	9	7	8	12	12	11	11	11 / 25
	Conservative	9	9	11	9	8	9	8	8 / 25
	Green	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3 / 25
	Liberal Democrat	4	5	3	2	1	2	2	2 / 25
	Reform						0	1	1 / 25
	UKIP	0	2	0	0	2	0
	BNP	0	0	1	0	0

On 12 December 2018, following Peter Whittle's departure from UKIP, he and David Kurten disbanded the UKIP grouping and formed the Brexit Alliance group.

In March 2019, following the departure of Tom Copley and Fiona Twycross to take up full-time Deputy Mayor roles, Murad Qureshi and Alison Moore replaced them as 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.

List of current Assembly members

Further information: London Assembly constituencies

Constituency	Member	Political party
Barnet and Camden	Anne Clarke		Labour Co-op
Bexley and Bromley	Thomas Turrell		Conservative
Brent and Harrow	Krupesh Hirani		Labour
City and East	Unmesh Desai		Labour
Croydon and Sutton	Neil Garratt		Conservative
Ealing and Hillingdon	Bassam Mahfouz		Labour
Enfield and Haringey	Joanne McCartney		Labour Co-op
Greenwich and Lewisham	Len Duvall		Labour Co-op
Havering and Redbridge	Keith Prince		Conservative
Lambeth and Southwark	Marina Ahmad		Labour
Merton and Wandsworth	Leonie Cooper		Labour Co-op
North East	Sem Moema		Labour
South West	Gareth Roberts		Liberal Democrats
West Central	James Small-Edwards		Labour Co-op
Additional members London-wide	Siân Berry		Green
	Susan Hall		Conservative
	Alex Wilson		Reform UK
	Caroline Russell		Green
	Shaun Bailey		Conservative
	Emma Best		Conservative
	Hina Bokhari		Liberal Democrats
	Zack Polanski		Green
	Andrew Boff		Conservative
	Elly Baker		Labour
	Alessandro Georgiou		Conservative

Composition of London Assembly, 2000 – 2021

  Green Party   Labour Party   Liberal Democrats   Conservative Party   UKIP   BNP

List of chairs of the London Assembly

Chairs of the assembly

Name	Entered office	Left office	Political party
Trevor Phillips	May 2000	May 2001		Labour
Sally Hamwee	May 2001	May 2002		Liberal Democrats
Trevor Phillips	May 2002	February 2003		Labour
Sally Hamwee	February 2003	May 2004		Liberal Democrats
Brian Coleman	May 2004	May 2005		Conservative
Sally Hamwee	May 2005	May 2006		Liberal Democrats
Brian Coleman	May 2006	May 2007		Conservative
Sally Hamwee	May 2007	May 2008		Liberal Democrats
Jennette Arnold	May 2008	May 2009		Labour
Darren Johnson	May 2009	May 2010		Green
Dee Doocey	May 2010	May 2011		Liberal Democrats
Jennette Arnold	May 2011	May 2013		Labour
Darren Johnson	May 2013	May 2014		Green
Roger Evans	May 2014	May 2015		Conservative
Jennette Arnold	May 2015	May 2016		Labour
Tony Arbour	May 2016	May 2017		Conservative
Jennette Arnold	May 2017	May 2018		Labour
Tony Arbour	May 2018	May 2019		Conservative
Jennette Arnold	May 2019	May 2020		Labour
Navin Shah	May 2020	May 2021		Labour
Andrew Boff	May 2021	May 2022		Conservative
Onkar Sahota	May 2022	May 2023		Labour
Andrew Boff	May 2023	Incumbent		Conservative

Committees

The Assembly has formed the following committees:

• Audit Panel, chaired by Neil Garratt
• Budget and Performance Committee, chaired by Neil Garratt
• Confirmation Hearings Committee
• Economy Committee, chaired by Marina Ahmad
• Environment Committee, chaired by Leonie Cooper
• Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee, chaired by Anne Clarke
• GLA Oversight Committee, chaired by Emma Best
• Health Committee, chaired by Onkar Sahota
• Housing Committee, chaired by Shaun Bailey
• Planning and Regeneration Committee, chaired by Sakina Sheikh
• Police and Crime Committee, chaired by Caroline Russell
• Transport Committee, chaired by Keith Prince

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.

Result maps

Note that these maps only show constituency results and not list results.

• 
  2000 results
• 
  2004 results
• 
  2008 results
• 
  2012 results
• 
  2016 results
• 
  2021 results
• 
  2024 results

External links

• London Assembly
• London Assembly publications
• City Hall Labour
• Conservatives in the London Assembly
• London Assembly Liberal Democrats