The Chamber of the London Assembly at City Hall.

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.

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.

Current state of the parties

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.

Constituency Members

London Assembly constituencies