London Assembly

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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.

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 Acton and Harrow East at the next general election.

1 Makeup
- 1.1 Constituency Members
- 1.2 London-wide Members
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Makeup

The London Assembly comprises 25 members, all elected at the same time as the Mayor. There are 14 constituencies, each with one member, and then 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. Members of the Assembly have the 'AM' after their names. The Additional Member System is used for the list members. The current state of the parties in the Assembly is:

Party	Seats		Current Assembly
Party	2000	2004	Current Assembly
Conservative	9	9
Labour	9	7
Liberal Democrat	4	5
Green	3	2
One London	0	2

Both One London members were elected on the United Kingdom Independence Party list but defected in February 2005 to the newly-formed Veritas party; from September 2005 they formed their own party.

[edit] Constituency Members

See London Assembly constituencies for a list of London boroughs each constituency covers.

London Assembly constituencies

Constituency	Member	Party
Barnet and Camden	Brian Coleman	Conservative
Bexley and Bromley	Bob Neill	Conservative
Brent and Harrow	Robert Blackman	Conservative
City and East	John Biggs	Labour
Croydon and Sutton	Andrew Pelling	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	Elizabeth Howlett	Conservative
North East	Jennette Arnold	Labour
South West	Tony Arbour	Conservative
West Central	Angie Bray	Conservative