London Assembly
London Assembly | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 3 July 2000 |
| Leadership | |
Onkar Sahota since 9 May 2022 | |
Deputy Chair | Andrew Boff since 9 May 2022 |
Group leaders |
|
| Structure | |
| Seats | 25 |
 | |
Political groups |
|
| Committees | List
|
| Elections | |
| Additional Member System | |
Last election | 6 May 2021 |
Next election | May 2024 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| City Hall, Newham, London | |
| Website | |
| www.london.gov.uk | |
| This article is part of a series within the Politics of England on the |
| Politics of London |
|---|
 |
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 super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject the Mayor's draft statutory strategies.[1] 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, 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, with 13 seats needed for a majority. Elections take place every four years, at the same time as for the Mayor. 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.[2] 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 £59,000.[3]
Former Assembly Members
Since its creation in 2000, fifteen Assembly Members have subsequently been 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 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 and Dee Doocey were appointed peers after leaving the Assembly. In addition, Val Shawcross, 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 who stood for Labour in Harrow East in 2017. Andrew Dismore, Graham Tope, and the late Richard Tracey 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 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.[4] At the 2017 general election, the Conservative Party manifesto proposed changing how the Assembly is elected to first-past-the-post.[5]
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 list)
| Political party | Assembly members | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2004 | 2008 | 2012 | 2016 | 2021 | |||
| Labour | 9 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 / 25
| |
| Conservative | 9 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 / 25
| |
| Green | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 / 25
| |
| Liberal Democrat | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 / 25
| |
| UKIP | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 / 25
| |
| 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
List of chairs of the London 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 | Incumbent | Labour | |
Committees
The Assembly has formed the following committees:[6]
- Audit Panel, chaired by Neil Garratt
- Budget and Performance Committee, chaired by Peter Fortune
- Confirmation Hearings Committee
- Economy Committee, chaired by Hina Bokhari
- Environment Committee, chaired by Zack Polanski
- Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee, chaired by Anne Clarke
- GLA Oversight Committee, chaired by Leonie Cooper
- Health Committee, chaired by Krupesh Hirani
- Housing Committee, chaired by Sem Moema
- Planning and Regeneration Committee, chaired by Sakina Sheikh
- Police and Crime Committee, chaired by Susan Hall
- Transport Committee, chaired by Siân Berry
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.[7]
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
References
- ^ "Localism Act 2011". Legislation.gov.uk. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ^ "How the London election works". BBC. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
- ^ "Salaries, expenses, benefits and workforce information". London City Hall. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
- ^ Stone, Jon (23 December 2016). "Tory and Labour MPs gang up in bid to strip London Assembly of PR voting system". The Independent.
- ^ "Tories confirm London Assembly also faces election rules shake-up". Mayor Watch. 19 May 2017.
- ^ "London Assembly – Membership of Committees/Panels and Terms of Reference 2022/23 | London Assembly" (PDF). london.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
- ^ "Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011". Legislation.gov.uk. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2015.