Greater London Authority Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for his kind comments from a sedentary position. As he implies, it is partly to do with the system, which the Bill will leave in place. Unfortunately, particularly under the proportional representation system of the assembly, it is a quixotic target to bring together parties from the far right, right, centre and left to vote down a mayoral budget. That is the target that we have been set—to bring together Greens, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and a far-right group that goes under varying names over the years, depending on which party those people happen to alight on. One can understand why Londoners turn round to their assembly members and MPs and ask, ““Why can’t you stop the Mayor making these increases? Surely, in any democracy,”” which electors understand elected assemblies to be, ““One vote is enough.”” I explain to them, ““I’m terribly sorry, but we have to secure a two-thirds majority.”” Members of the public cannot understand why they are even asked to go to the polls to vote for those representatives when their powers are so significantly neutered and no appropriate approach has taken place. The Government had an opportunity to bring credibility to the assembly by allowing for a simple majority vote of London’s representatives, who are elected at the same time as the Mayor. If the Mayor is not capable of carrying London’s representatives by a simple majority, something must be wrong in the governance of London, and something must be wrong with the Mayor himself.