A politician has called for greater London Assembly powers to fill the “democratic deficit” between the Mayor of London and the assembly.

Conservative London Assembly member, Andrew Boff, has published a report “Powering Up” which calls for the assembly to be given more powers to better hold the Mayor of London to account.

When the Greater London Authority (GLA) was founded in 2000 the Mayor of London was given “executive power” over the GLA and has overall responsibility for important policy decisions such as transport, housing and policing.

The report argues that because of increased powers devolved from central government to the mayor since 2000 the London Assembly must have more power to perform checks and balances on him.

The Adult Education Budget in London will be being devolved to the mayor in 2019 for example.

Commenting on the report Mr Boff said: “My report aims to make sure the mayor is accountable to Londoners.

“In order to avoid an elective dictatorship there has to be a counter balance to the power of the mayor.”

In the report there are a number of recommendations about what extra powers the London Assembly should have to make the mayor more accountable and “increase their effectiveness”.

Currently all major decisions and strategies proposed by the mayor must be approved by a two-thirds majority – two thirds of the assembly must vote in favour of it.

But Mr Boff has proposed that for a mayoral decision to be passed there must a ‘simple majority’ – a majority in which the highest number of votes cast exceeds the second highest.

Commenting on a part of his report he feels most strongly about he said: “By getting a simple majority it would force London mayors to ensure that their budgets and strategies are accountable to all Londoners.”

The report also says that the assembly should have the power to “call-in” mayoral decisions and send them back to the mayor to “reconsider” if they are unhappy with them.

Other recommendations included establishing an independent Budget Office for London to give the assembly “power of the purse”; permit the assembly to approve all Mayoral appointees who are not assembly members and make Mayor’s Question Time bi-monthly instead of once a month.

Mr Boff, who will be running to be mayor at the next elections, was keen to stress that the report was is no way biased towards one political party.

He said: “I held these views when there was a Conservative mayor and with the pace that governments can give these powers it’s not likely we will get them until after 2020.”

The next mayoral elections will take place in 2020.

Mr Boff hopes that his report would hold weight with the national government and hopefully bring about a change.

He added: “I do think that over the years there has been a common cause with assembly members of all parties in trying to ensure that increased mayoral powers are met with increased scrutiny.”

“If I can get support from other assembly members I think we can get the Government to do something.”