2008 London Assembly election

An election to the Assembly of London took place on 1 May 2008, along with the 2008 London mayoral election. The Conservatives gained 2 seats, Labour gained one seat, the Liberal Democrats lost two seats, and UKIP were wiped out. Notably, a candidate for the British National Party (BNP) was elected for the first time.

2008 London Assembly election
1 May 2008
25 London Assembly Seats
13 seats needed for majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Richard Barnes Len Duvall Mike Tuffrey
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats
Leader's seat Ealing and Hillingdon Greenwich and Lewisham Londonwide
Last election 9 seats 7 seats 5 seats
Seats won 11 8 3
Seat change 2 1 2
Constituency Vote 900,569 673,855 330,018
% and swing 37.4% 6.2% 28.0% 3.3% 13.7% 4.7%
Regional Vote 835,535 665,443 252,556
% and swing 34.1% 6.2% 27.1% 2.7% 11.2% 5.3%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Jenny Jones Richard Barnbrook
Party Green BNP
Leader's seat Londonwide Londonwide
Last election 2 seats 0 seats
Seats won 2 1
Seat change 1
Constituency Vote 194,059 18,020
% and swing 8.1% 0.4% 0.7% 0.7%
Regional Vote 203,465 130,714
% and swing 8.3% 0.3% 5.3% 0.6%
The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows regional winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours.

The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. Fourteen directly elected constituencies exist, all of which have, to date, only ever been won by the Conservative Party or the Labour Party. An additional eleven members are allocated by a London wide top-up vote with the proviso that parties must win at least five percent of the vote to qualify for the list seats. Prior to these elections, these seats were held by five Liberal Democrats, two Labour Party members, two Green Party members and two One Londoners.

The two One London members were elected as candidates for the UK Independence Party, but then joined or supported the breakaway Veritas party and subsequently left Veritas to form One London. Compared to the previous election, two separate factions of RESPECT Unity Coalition stood in 2008: Respect (George Galloway), who supported Ken Livingstone in the mayoral election, and Left List, who supported Lindsey German (RESPECT's mayoral candidate in 2004).

Results
 
London Assembly election, 2008
Parties Additional member system Total seats
Constituency Region
Votes % +/− Seats +/− Votes % +/− Seats +/− Total +/− %
Conservative 900,569 37.4 6.2 8 1 835,535 34.1 6.2 3 3 11 3 44.0
Labour 673,855 28.0 3.3 6 1 665,443 27.1 2.7 2 8 1 32.0
Liberal Democrats 330,018 13.7 4.7 0 252,556 11.2 5.3 3 2 3 2 12.0
Green 194,059 8.1 0.4 0 203,465 8.3 0.3 2 2 8.0
BNP 18,020 0.7 N/A 0 130,714 5.3 0.6 1 1 1 1 4.0
Christian Choice† 65,357 2.7 0.3 0 70,294 2.9 ±0.0 0 0 -
Abolish the
Congestion Charge		 - - - - - 63,596 2.6 N/A 0 0 -
Respect 26,760 1.1 3.5 0 59,721 2.4 2.1 0 0 -
UKIP 71,984 3.0 7.0 0 46,617 1.9 6.3 0 2 0 2 -
English Democrat 37,171 1.5 N/A 0 25,569 1.0 N/A 0 0 -
Left List 33,438 1.4 N/A 0 22,583 0.9 N/A 0 0 -
Unity for Peace
and Socialism		 - - - - - 6,394 0.3 N/A 0 0 -
Rathy Alagaratnam - - - - - 3,974 0.2 N/A 0 0 -
One London - - - - - 3,430 0.1 N/A 0 0 -
National Front 34,840 1.4 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Independent 11,096 0.5 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Free England 2,908 0.2 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Animals Count 1,828 0.1 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Socialist (GB) 1,588 0.1 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Socialist Alternative 1,587 0.1 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Communist League 701 0.0 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
Veritas 510 0.0 N/A 0 - - - - - 0 -
 Total2,406,28914 2,389,891 1125 

† Joint-ticket Christian Party/Christian Peoples Alliance candidates standing as "Christian Choice"

Constituency Vote
Conservative
 
 37.4%
Labour
 
 28.0%
Liberal Democrats
 
 13.7%
Green
 
 8.1%
Others
 
 12.8%
Regional Vote
Conservative
 
 34.1%
Labour
 
 27.1%
Liberal Democrats
 
 11.2%
Green
 
 8.3%
BNP
 
 5.3%
Others
 
 12.7%
Assembly seats
Conservative
 
 44.0%
Labour
 
 32.0%
Liberal Democrats
 
 12.0%
Green
 
 8.0%
BNP
 
 4.0%
  • Total: 2,389,891
  • Overall turnout: 45.28%

Analysis

Labour gained Brent and Harrow from Conservative (which had been the only constituency seat changing hands in 2004, having then been gained from Labour). The other 13 constituencies remained unchanged, with the two Liberal Democrat challenges, in South West against the Conservatives, and Lambeth and Southwark against Labour, both showing swings against the Liberal Democrats. The Labour-Conservative marginal, with just 1.3% majority, of Enfield and Haringey was defended by Labour with only a tiny swing to the Conservatives. Thus the Labour campaign for the London Assembly was considerably more successful than their campaign in the local elections held on the same day.[1]

Winning list members behind the returning officer

The Liberal Democrat and UKIP vote shares were both very poor compared with 2004, with UKIP wiped out entirely, and the Liberal Democrats losing two members.

The Labour vote share was up, but because of their capture of a FPTP seat, they did not gain any extra Additional Members against 2004. The biggest vote increase was for the Conservatives, achieving the highest ever showing of any party on the list, 34%; as a result and also due to their loss of one FPTP seat, they went from zero to three additional members. The Conservative record was subsequently surpassed by Labour in 2012 (41.1%) and 2016 (40.3%).

The British National Party won their first seat on the Assembly by reaching the 5% threshold.

London-wide list candidates
London Assembly Election 2008 — London-wide lists
NameCandidates Elected to AssemblyNot Elected
Abolish the Congestion ChargeChris Prior
British National PartyRichard BarnbrookRobert Bailey, Julian Leppert, Roberta Woods, Dennis Pearce, Christopher Forster, Jeffrey Marshall, Clifford Le May, Lawrence Rustem, John Clarke
The Christian ChoiceAlan Craig, Paula Warren, David Campanale, Geoffrey Macharia, Stephen Hammond,Maxine Hargreaves, Sue May, Segun Johnson, Tom Conquest, Zena Sherman, Peter Vickers
Conservative PartyAndrew Boff, Victoria Borwick, Gareth BaconEdmond Yeo, Jane Archer, Kwasi Kwarteng, Benjamin Everitt, Andrew Stranack, Adrian Knowles
English DemocratsRoger Cooper, Steven Uncles, Leo Brookes, Sati Chaggar, Janus Polenceus, Arvind Tailor, Teresa Cannon, Johanna Munilla, Richard Castle, David Stevens, Carol White, John Dodds, Alex Vaughan, Ursula Polenceus, Kathie Broughton, John Griffiths, Liz Painter, Paul Szatmari, James Ware, Steve Scott, Nichole Vaughan, Peter Tate, Matt O'Connor
Green PartyJenny Jones, Darren JohnsonNoel Lynch, Siân Berry, Shane Collins, Laura Davenport, Shahrar Ali, Yen Chit Chong, Miranda Dunn, Adrian Oliver, Jon Nott
Labour PartyNicky Gavron, Murad QureshiJohn Biggs, Len Duvall, Jennette Arnold, Val Shawcross, Joanne McCartney, Navin Shah, Ranjit Dheer, Balvinder Saund, Leonie Cooper, Ansuya Sodha, Shafi Khan, Alex Heslop
Left ListLindsey German, Oliur Rahman, Rania Khan, Carole Vincent, Salvinder Dhillon, Sait Akgul, Elaine Graham-Leigh, Kumar Murshid, Glyn Robbins, Berlyne Hamilton, Katt Young, Paul Fredericks, Pat McManus, Tansy Hoskins, Mukul Hira, Pat Stack, Sultana Begum, Mujgan Kazeroonian
Liberal DemocratsMichael Tuffrey, Dee Doocey, Caroline PidgeonJeremy Ambache, Geoffrey Pope, Benjamin Abbotts, Stephen Knight, Shas Sheehan, Duncan Borrowman, Monica Whyte, Merlene Emerson
One LondonDamian Hockney, Peter Hulme Cross, Robert Hough, Helena Nelson, Martin Rutter
Respect
(George Galloway)		George Galloway, Linda Smith, Abdul Sheikh, Zakaria Abdi, Sabia Kamali, Abdurahman Jafar, Carole Swords, Hanif Abdulmuhit, John Mulrenan, Mohammed Rashid, Margot Lindsay, Anthony Collins
UKIPLawrence Webb, Kathleen Garner, Michael McGough, Ralph Atkinson, Jens Winton, Arnold Tarling, Peter Dul, John Bailey, Mick Greenhough, Jonathan Serter, Magnus Nielsen, Sunita Webb, Lynnda Robson
Unity for Peace & SocialismChristiane Ohsan, Pauline Fraser, Avtar Uppal, Ivan Beavis, Mohammed Khan, Jean Turner, Sarwan Singh, Harunor Rashid, Monty Goldman, Peter Latham, Philip Brand, Charlie May, Eleni Geropanagioti
Rathy Alagaratnam (Independent)Rathy Alagaratnam

London Assembly representation
Party Seats Loss/Gain
Conservative 11 +2
Labour 8 +1
Liberal Democrats 3 –2
Green 2 0
BNP 1 +1
UKIP 0 [†] –2
Total 25

[†] Both UKIP Assembly members had subsequently defected and formed the new One London party.

New members

Defeated members

Retiring members

References
  1. "London assembly results | Politics". guardian.co.uk. 2 May 2008. Retrieved 2012-04-19.

See also
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