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   Leader Richard Barnes Len Duvall Party Conservative Labour Leader's seat Ealing and Hillingdon Greenwich and Lewisham Last election 9 seats 7 seats Seats won 11 8 Seat change 2 1 Constituency Vote 900,569 673,855 % and swing 37.4% 6.2% 28.0% 3.3% Regional Vote 835,535 665,443 % and swing 34.1% 6.2% 27.1% 2.7%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Mike Tuffrey Jenny Jones Party Liberal Democrats Green Leader's seat Londonwide Londonwide Last election 5 seats 2 seats Seats won 3 2 Seat change 2 Constituency Vote 330,018 194,059 % and swing 13.7% 4.7% 8.1% 0.4% Regional Vote 252,556 203,465 % and swing 11.2% 5.3% 8.3% 0.3%   Fifth party   Leader Richard Barnbrook Party BNP Leader's seat Londonwide Last election 0 seats Seats won 1 Seat change 1 Constituency Vote 18,020 % and swing 0.7% 0.7% Regional Vote 130,714 % and swing 5.3% 0.6%

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	2	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	New	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	New	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	New	0		25,569	1.0	New	0		0		-
	Left List	33,438	1.4	New	0		22,583	0.9	New	0		0		-
	Unity for Peace and Socialism#	-	-	-	-	-	6,394	0.3	New	0		0		-
	Rathy Alagaratnam	-	-	-	-	-	3,974	0.2	N/A	0		0		-
	One London	-	-	-	-	-	3,430	0.1	New	0		0		-
	National Front	34,840	1.4	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Independent	11,096	0.5	N/A	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Free England	2,908	0.2	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Animal Welfare	1,828	0.1	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Socialist (GB)	1,588	0.1	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Socialist Alternative	1,587	0.1	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Communist League	701	0.0	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Veritas	510	0.0	New	0		-	-	-	-	-	0		-
	Total	2,406,289			14		2,389,891			11		25

† Joint-ticket Christian Party/Christian Peoples Alliance candidates standing as "Christian Choice"
# Communist Party of Britain were listed on the ballot paper as "Unity for Peace and Socialism"

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.

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
	Name	Candidates Elected to Assembly	Not Elected
	Abolish the Congestion Charge		Chris Prior
	British National Party	Richard Barnbrook	Robert Bailey, Julian Leppert, Roberta Woods, Dennis Pearce, Christopher Forster, Jeffrey Marshall, Clifford Le May, Lawrence Rustem, John Clarke
	The Christian Choice		Alan Craig, Paula Warren, David Campanale, Geoffrey Macharia, Stephen Hammond, Maxine Hargreaves, Sue May, Segun Johnson, Tom Conquest, Zena Sherman, Peter Vickers
	Conservative Party	Andrew Boff, Victoria Borwick, Gareth Bacon	Edmond Yeo, Jane Archer, Kwasi Kwarteng, Benjamin Everitt, Andrew Stranack, Adrian Knowles
	English Democrats		Roger 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 Party	Jenny Jones, Darren Johnson	Noel Lynch, Siân Berry, Shane Collins, Laura Davenport, Shahrar Ali, Yen Chit Chong, Miranda Dunn, Adrian Oliver, Jon Nott
	Labour Party	Nicky Gavron, Murad Qureshi	John Biggs, Len Duvall, Jennette Arnold, Val Shawcross, Joanne McCartney, Navin Shah, Ranjit Dheer, Balvinder Saund, Leonie Cooper, Ansuya Sodha, Shafi Khan, Alex Heslop
	Left List		Lindsey 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 Democrats	Michael Tuffrey, Dee Doocey, Caroline Pidgeon	Jeremy Ambache, Geoffrey Pope, Benjamin Abbotts, Stephen Knight, Shas Sheehan, Duncan Borrowman, Monica Whyte, Merlene Emerson
	One London		Damian 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
	UKIP		Lawrence 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 & Socialism		Christiane 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

• Gareth Bacon (Conservative Party, London list)
• Richard Barnbrook (British National Party (subsequently expelled from party), London list)
• Andrew Boff (Conservative Party, London list)
• Victoria Borwick (Conservative Party, London list)
• James Cleverly (Conservative Party, Bexley and Bromley)
• Kit Malthouse (Conservative Party, West Central)
• Steve O'Connell (Conservative Party, Croydon and Sutton)
• Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrats, London list)
• Navin Shah (Labour Party, Brent and Harrow)
• Richard Tracey (Conservative Party, Merton and Wandsworth)

Defeated members

• Bob Blackman (Conservative Party, Brent and Harrow)
• Damian Hockney (One London, London list)
• Peter Hulme-Cross (One London, London list)
• Geoff Pope (Liberal Democrats, London list)

Retiring members

• Angie Bray (Conservative Party, West Central)
• Sally Hamwee (Liberal Democrats, London list)
• Elizabeth Howlett (Conservative Party, Merton and Wandsworth)
• Bob Neill (Conservative Party, Bexley and Bromley)
• Andrew Pelling (Conservative Party, Croydon and Sutton)
• Graham Tope (Liberal Democrats, London list)

See also

• 2008 London mayoral election
• 2008 United Kingdom local elections
• Greater London Authority
• Mayor of London
• London Assembly