2008 London Assembly election

← 2004 1 May 2008 2012 →
All 25 seats in the London Assembly 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% Party 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% Party 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% Party vote 130,714 % and swing 5.3% 0.6%
Vote plurality Margins of victory

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.

The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. Fourteen directly elected constituencies exist, all of which, until 2024 were ever 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	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"

• 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]

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 representation

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

References

See also

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