Mayoral Election: smaller parties

Joe Inwood
The Politics Show London

What chance for small parties in City Hall?

It is the big parties, and bigger personalities, that have been hogging all the headlines in the count down to the London mayoral elections.

But, because of an element of proportional representation in the way that the London Assembly is elected, small parties have a genuine chance of getting some seats.

Indeed, in the 2004 poll Londoners gave almost a sixth of the posts to members from outside the 'three-opoly'.

Darren Johnston and Jenny Jones got in for the Greens, while Damien Hockney and Peter Hulme-Cross were elected from UKIP - the United Kingdom Independence Party.

The Greens have arguably been the most prominent small group on the Assembly, working with the Labour members to approve, and possibly influence, the Mayor's budget.

Jenny Jones says the Greens have made an impact.

Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones believes they have made an impact on Mayoral policy:

"For the past four years we've had a budget agreement with the Mayor of London - he needed our votes.

"We have introduced a range of measures that I think has made London a much better place.

"We encouraged the Mayor over the "green homes service" and got him to ban all short haul flights for GLA employees - that's going to make a big contribution towards fighting climate change.

"And you can't forget all the walking and cycling stuff."

But what about accusations that they are too nice, and have simply let Ken get away with stealing their policies?

Jenny Jones argues that what the party fundamentally cares about is having environmental policies implemented - if it is someone from one of the "grey parties" that implement it, she is happy to accept that.

According to environmental campaigner and Conservative green advisor Zac Goldsmith, this is no bad thing:

Zac Goldsmith: Greens should celebrate good ideas

"When a mainstream party presents a good idea, the Greens should celebrate it...

"Instead of describing politicians who have made a move in the right direction as "Jonny-come-latelys", they should celebrate the fact that Jonny's here at all"

Punched above their weight

London School of Economics policy expert, Tony Travers, has been casting a keen eye over the small parties.

He has followed the progress of the Greens as well as their UKIP colleagues:

"Small parties can work with other parties, or with the Mayor, to deliver specific outcomes.

"I think you can see this with the way that the Greens have worked on the assembly.

"Because they've provided the mayor with the numbers they need to get the budget through, they've been able to demand things from the Mayor that fit in with their agenda - and that's been pretty successful from their point of view.

"One London, who were UKIP, have also been visible, and have punched above their weight. They say things that we, the public, hear.

"I think that both the Greens and the One London members have actually been rather more visible, proportionally, that some of the larger groups."

Split

But despite being voted in on a tide of euro-scepticism in 2004, UKIP have not actually had any members in the assembly for the past 3 years.

This is because of the split caused by Robert Kilroy-Silk's failed bid for the party leadership in 2005, and resulting defection of their Assembly members to his new party - Veritas.

Despite this having cost them the seats they had won just the year before, UKIP candidate Lawrence Webb says he is keen to focus on the future.

"All parties have defections, and UKIP is no different to that. We very much believe that we can win two seats this time, if not more because we are standing for what ordinary Londoners want.

"We want to reduce crime, we want to scrap the congestion charge and we're going to take an axe to the mayor's budget."

Collapse

When Veritas collapsed after just 9 months, it was too late for Peter Hulme-Cross and Damien Hockney to re-join their original party.

Instead, they decided to set up their own group - One London.

But other than getting elected and a couple of name changes, what has the group actually achieved?

A One London spokesman said:

"We were the first party to call for a 7/7 public inquiry and the resignation of Sir Ian Blair.

"We opposed the Mayor's inflation-busting pay hike and fraudulent postal voting on demand, and were the only party to highlight the democratic deficit in London governance."

Undeniably, proportional representation gives Londoners a genuine ideological choice of London Assembly members.

But, can those voices really be heard in a city dominated by such a powerful Mayor?

The Politics Show London

The Politics Show for London, with Jon Sopel and Tim Donovan on Sunday 16 March 2008 at 12:00 GMT on BBC One.

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