How does the GLA Top Up List work?

To get an Assemblyman elected via the London-wide Top Up List a Party has to obtain over 5% of the vote across London. There are 25 members of the London Assembly so theoretically that means 4% of the vote is required for each Assemblyman. However a 5% threshold has been introduced, meaning that a Party would have to obtain 5% to qualify for the first seat. Logically the next seat should be won with 8%, the next with 12% and so on. However it is not quite as simple as that.

All those Parties that polled less than 5% are discounted. So for example in the 2000 London Election there were 14 different choices available to electors on the Top Up List. Of these only four got over the 5% threshold (Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green). This meant that the 14.8% share of the poll obtained by the other ten Party lists were immediately discounted. So the Greens, while they polled 11.08% of the total vote, obtained 13.01% of the vote that counted towards the re-distribution of seats. This is why they ended up with three assembly seats in 2000 instead of just two.

How many seats you get is also dependent upon how well the Parties do in the London constituencies. Fourteen Assemblymen are elected via large constituencies that comprise two or three London Boroughs joined together. The other 11 are elected from the Top Up List. Let us examine how this works:

In 2000 the Conservatives won 8 of the constituencies. They also polled 28.99% of the vote on the Top Up List, which when those who did not meet the 5% threshold were discounted rose to 34.04% of the vote that counted towards the redistribution of seats. With 25 seats on the Assembly, 34.04% of the seats came to 8.51 seats. Rounding up, the Conservatives were given one more seat from the eleven on the Top Up List.

In 2004 the Conservatives won 9 constituencies and polled 32.16% of the Top Up vote that counted towards the redistribution of seats. This meant that theoretically the Conservatives should have had 8.16 seats on the London Assembly, but as they had won nine via the first-past the-post seats, they were not eligible for any more via the Top Up List.

The relative performance of the other Parties that are reliant upon the Top Up List is also of great importance. A few percentage points or even a fraction of a percentage point can make all the difference towards getting an extra Assemblyman elected. This is illustrated by the Liberal Democrat performance in 2004:

The Lib Dems got 16.88% of the raw Top Up List vote and won no constituencies yet ended up with 5 Assemblymen. Their ‘countable’ Top Up List vote was 19.34%, meaning each of their five Assemblymen was elected with an average of 3.87% of the ‘countable’ vote (or 3.38% of the total vote).

By contrast UKIP had two Assemblymen elected on 8.57% of the total vote or 9.81% of the ‘countable’ vote. So each UKIP Assemblyman was elected with an average of 4.29% of the raw vote and 4.91% of the ‘countable’ vote. However if UKIP had been awarded an extra seat their Assemblymen would have been elected with 3.27% of the countable vote, in comparison to the Lib Dem 3.87% - which is why the Lib Dems got the extra seat and not UKIP.

From this it can be seen that a handful of votes can make all the difference and how vital it is for the British National Party to concentrate its vote on the London Assembly Top Up List ballot. This is one reason why only one constituency seat is being contested.

As far as the British National Party’s prospects are concerned, provided of course we better the 5% threshold, the more Parties that fail to get 5% the better, and it is better that they just fail to get people elected, so reducing the level of the ‘countable’ vote. In 2004 12.7% of the total vote was discounted, compared to 14.8% in 2000. In 2008 it is likely that UKIP, One London, the English Democrats, Respect, the Christian People’s Alliance and a number of smaller groups will all stand for the Top Up List and probably all fail to get anyone elected. How many votes they get between them is impossible to judge with any degree of accuracy however in all likelihood it will be more than the 2004 figure.

It is also preferable that the total Conservative allocation comes from the first-past-the-post constituencies, and that they do not take up any of the Top Up List seats. This is another reason why it was important not for us to field Constituency candidates where our votes were likely to put a dent in the Conservative Constituency victory.

Tables showing how the Top Up List seats were distributed in the 2000 and 2004 GLA elections.

© 2008, British National Party Elections , PO Box 287, Waltham Cross, Herts, EN8 8ZU. Telephone: 0871 050 0232