Two new Labour members have joined the London Assembly in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

Alison Moore and Murad Qureshi will replace Tom Copley and Fiona Twycross as Londonwide members.

Mr Copley is stepping down from the Assembly to take up his new role as Deputy Mayor for Housing.

Under City Hall rules he can’t fill both posts at once, because of the potential conflict of interest.

Ms Twycross is already Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience, a role she held alongside her work on the Assembly.

But she is now leading the response to Covid-19 in the capital, and has stepped down to focus on that work.

Londonwide assembly members are elected via a list system – each party puts forward a set of candidates, and the number of votes they receive determines the number of members elected.

This means Ms Moore and Mr Qureshi can take up their posts without a by-election.

They will serve until the next election – now postponed from this May until next year.

But neither member is a Labour candidate for 2021, meaning they will have just one year at City Hall.

Mr Qureshi previously served on the Assembly from 2004 until 2016, and said he has “some idea of what you can do in a year”.

The former Westminster councillor will focus on the impact of coronavirus in the city.

He said pubs, theatres and cultural venues are “the life blood of central London” and he wants to help them “get back on their feet as soon as possible”.

Mr Qureshi is also concerned about the number of freelance workers in the capital.

He said: “As someone who’s been until recently self-employed and freelance, I want to make sure the support from Government reflects what we have in London.”

Ms Moore also wants to support the city through Covid-19 – as a biochemist and molecular biologist, she hopes her science background will help.

The former Barnet council cabinet member and opposition leader says she’ll use her “quite considerable experience” of local government to “hit the ground running”.

Ms Moore wants to do more than the “rather trite” aspiration to “make a difference”, and will use her experience in Barnet to advocate for outer London.

She said she’ll champion education and regeneration at City Hall, and be a “critical friend” to the Mayor.

But she admitted the role will be difficult because she “won’t have a chance to bed in” in challenging times.

All other London Assembly members will continue in their roles until the postponed election next year – including newly elected MPs Florence Eshalomi and Gareth Bacon.