Conservative Peers have backed an amendment to the Greater London Authority Bill to impose a term limit on the office of Mayor of London.
Baroness Hanham told the House of Lords “the office of mayor now in this country is the nearest thing we have to a dictator” adding “there is very little that can stop the mayor doing what he wants to do.”
Current Mayor Ken Livingstone said it was “up to Londoners, not parliamentarians, to decide who is Mayor.”
Damian Hockney, Leader of the One London Party said he shared “the Lords’ frustration that, if left to the Tories, there is apparently no end in sight to the mayorality of Ken Livingstone, but there are better ways to control the power of the Mayor than this.”
Hockney called for a greater role for the London Assembly callingfor it to “be given some real power to hold the mayor to account instead of its current role as an expensive talking shop.”
The Government says it will seek to overturn the amendment in the Commons.
