London Assembly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The London Assembly is an 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 majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget. The Assembly was established in 2000 and is headquartered at City Hall on the south side of the River Thames close to Tower Bridge. The Assembly is also able to investigate other issues of importance to Londoners, publish its findings and recommendations, and make proposals to the Mayor.

Contents 1 Stepping stone 2 Makeup 2.1 Current state of the parties 2.2 Constituency Members 2.3 London-wide Members 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Stepping stone

Although the Assembly's powers are fairly limited, the body is increasingly seen as a stepping stone to Parliament. In the time since its creation in 2000, six Assembly members have been elected to the House of Commons: David Lammy, Meg Hillier and Diana Johnson for Labour; Andrew Pelling and Bob Neill for the Conservatives; and Lynne Featherstone for the Liberal Democrats. In addition, Angie Bray and Bob Blackman have been selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidates for the marginal seats of Ealing Central and Acton and Harrow East at the next general election.

[edit] Makeup

The London Assembly comprises 25 members elected using the Additional Member System. Elections take place every four years - at the same time as for the Mayor. There are 14 constituencies each electing one member, with a further 11 members elected from a party list to make the total members from each party proportional to the votes cast for that party across the whole of London. Parties must win at least 5% of the party list vote in order to win any seats. Members of the Assembly have the letters 'AM' after their names.

In 2008/09 the Chair of the London Assembly is Jennette Arnold. Her predecessor was Sally Hamwee.

[edit] Current state of the parties

	Party	Seats			Current Assembly
		2000	2004	2008
	Conservative	9	9	11
	Labour	9	7	8
	Liberal Democrat	4	5	3
	Green	3	2	2
	British National Party	0	0	1
	UKIP¹	0	2	0

¹Both United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) members defected in February 2005 to the newly-formed Veritas party; from September 2005 they formed their own party, One London which failed to win seats in the subsequent election.

[edit] Constituency Members

Further information: London Assembly constituencies

London Assembly constituencies

Constituency	Member	Party
Barnet and Camden	Brian Coleman	Conservative
Bexley and Bromley	James Cleverly	Conservative
Brent and Harrow	Navin Shah	Labour
City and East	John Biggs	Labour
Croydon and Sutton	Stephen O'Connell	Conservative
Ealing and Hillingdon	Richard Barnes	Conservative
Enfield and Haringey	Joanne McCartney	Labour
Greenwich and Lewisham	Len Duvall	Labour
Havering and Redbridge	Roger Evans	Conservative
Lambeth and Southwark	Valerie Shawcross	Labour
Merton and Wandsworth	Richard Tracey	Conservative
North East	Jennette Arnold	Labour
South West	Tony Arbour	Conservative
West Central	Kit Malthouse	Conservative

[edit] London-wide Members

	Party
		Members
	Conservative	Andrew Boff, Victoria Borwick, Gareth Bacon
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Tuffrey, Dee Doocey, Caroline Pidgeon
	Labour	Nicky Gavron, Murad Qureshi
	Green	Jenny Jones, Darren Johnson
	British National Party	Richard Barnbrook

[edit] See also

• London Assembly election, 2000
• London Assembly election, 2004
• London Assembly election, 2008

[edit] External links

• London Assembly
• MayorWatch Guide to the London Assembly
• London Assembly Labour

v • d • e City of London · Greater London · London Upper tier Greater London Authority · London Assembly · Mayor of London Lower tier Barking and Dagenham · Barnet · Bexley · Brent · Bromley · Camden · City of London* · Croydon · Ealing · Enfield · Greenwich · Hackney · Hammersmith and Fulham · Haringey · Harrow · Havering · Hillingdon · Hounslow · Islington · Kensington and Chelsea · Kingston · Lambeth · Lewisham · Merton · Newham · Redbridge · Richmond · Southwark · Sutton · Tower Hamlets · Waltham Forest · Wandsworth · Westminster Historical Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) 1855–1889 · London County Council (LCC) 1889–1965 · Greater London Council (GLC) 1965–1986 * not a London Borough

v • d • e Regional planning in England Regional assemblies East • East Midlands • London • North East • North West • South East • South West • West Midlands • Yorkshire and the Humber Regional development agencies East • East Midlands • London • North East • North West • South East • South West • West Midlands • Yorkshire and the Humber