Greater London Assembly

Government Plans to change London's voting system back to FPTP 

The London Assembly is made up of 25 Members - 11 represent the whole capital and 14 are elected by London’s constituencies. The 14 constituencies are made up of two or more local authorities, for example; Barnet and Camden make up one constituency. 

The Assembly acts as the eyes and ears of Londoners at City Hall. Members hold the Mayor to account by examining Mayoral strategies, decisions and actions to make sure they are in the public interest. They champion Londoners’ concerns by investigating important issues and pressing for changes to national, Mayoral or local policy. They also have the power to reject strategies and make changes to budgets when two-thirds of Assembly Members agree. The Mayor is questioned by the Assembly 10 times a year at Mayor’s Question Time.

What are the Mayor and London Assembly not responsible for?

London’s councils, rather than the Mayor or London Assembly, are directly responsible for many of the services Londoners experience day-to-day like council housing, schools, social services, rubbish collection, street cleaning, parking permits, council tax collection and birth, death and marriage certificates.

Central government leads on the NHS, welfare and most forms of taxation.

How are London Assembly (constituency) Member results calculated?

The 14 London Assembly (constituency) Members are elected using the ‘first past the post system’.

This means the candidate in each constituency with the most votes is elected as a London Assembly (constituency) Member.

Read more about the key stages of the count process.

How are London Assembly (London-wide) Member results calculated?

The 11 Assembly (London-wide) Members are elected using a form of ‘proportional representation’: this system is used to ensure the overall Assembly reflects how London voted. This means that these Assembly seats cannot be allocated until the constituency results have been announced.

The 11 seats are allocated using a mathematical formula – the ‘Modified d’Hondt Formula’.  The formula uses the votes cast in the London Assembly (London-wide) Member contest and takes account of the number of London Assembly (constituency) Member seats that each political party has already won.

11 rounds of calculations then take place to fill the 11 vacant Assembly Member seats, with the party or independent candidate with the highest result at each round being allocated the seat.  Seats won by parties are allocated to party candidates in the order they appeared on the relevant party’s list of candidates.

The 2024 London Assembly election was held on 2 May 2024 to elect the members of the London Assembly. It took place on the same day as the 2024 London mayoral election 

Members of the London Assembly are elected through a combination of both first past the post and closed list proportional representation. This system is commonly referred to as the additional member system. Fourteen members are elected in single member constituencies with the candidate receiving the largest number of votes becoming the Assembly Member for that constituency. An additional 11 "London members" are also elected from the whole of London, with parties submitting lists of up to 25 candidates. For a party to receive one or more London members, it needs to attain at least 5% of the vote across London. This process divides the remaining seats proportionally to the vote share of the parties with the use of the modified D'Hondt method allocating the seats. This system ensures overall proportionality with the 11 additional members being allocated in a corrective manner. 

Following the Elections Act 2022, the 2024 the voting system used to elect the London Mayor is the first-past-the-post voting system. Prior elections had employed the supplementary vote system.