Len Duvall

Leonard Lloyd Duvall, Baron Duvall, (born 26 September 1961) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has been chair of the London Assembly since May 2025, having previously served as deputy chair from 2024. Additionally, Duvall has been serving as the Leader of the Labour Group in the London Assembly since 2004, and has been the Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Greenwich and Lewisham since 2000. Duvall is a former chair of both the Metropolitan Police Authority and the London Labour Party Regional Board.

Early life and career Duvall was born and raised in Woolwich. He suffered from ill health as a child and attended a special school for ten years. After leaving school aged 16 he became a youth worker and later worked in local government. He was one of the founders of the New Local Government Network, chair of the Thames Gateway London Partnership, chair of the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government, vice-chair of the Local Government Information Unit, a non–executive Director of Millennium Experience Ltd, deputy chair of the Association of London Government, a member of the Council of Europe and Chamber of the Regions, chair of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (1998–2005), and in 1998 he was appointed an OBE for "services to Local Government in London and to the Thames Gateway Partnership".

London Assembly He was first elected as an AM in 2000, and retained his Greenwich and Lewisham seat in the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2021, 2024 elections. Duval is the only remaining London Assembly member to have served continuously since the London Assembly was established in May 2000. He is leader of the Labour Group on the London Assembly, chair of both the EU Exit Working Group and the GLA Oversight Committee, and Deputy Chair of the Budget and Performance Committee and the Budget and Monitoring Sub-Committee.

Outside the London Assembly, he was a non-executive director of Tilfen Land, a property development company and a board member of the Royal Artillery Museums Trust, his father and grandfather having served as gunners in the Royal Artillery. During his time as chair Charlton House was placed on the Historic England at risk register.

House of Lords Duvall was nominated for a life peerage as part of the 2025 Political Peerages to sit in the House of Lords as a Labour peer; he was created as Baron Duvall, of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich on 8 January 2026.

Personal life His partner is Jackie Smith, who is a councillor in the London Borough of Greenwich and became Deputy Leader in May 2026.