at the time. After the success of his Asylum Commission, he was also asked to head another UK commission on immigration. The report that followed was presented to the then Shadow Home Secretary David Davis during the summer of 2004. In December 2004, Kirkhope was elected Leader of the Conservative Delegation in the European Parliament. He was defeated in the Leadership election in November 2007 but was then re-elected in 2009. During his total of 6 years as the leader of the delegation Kirkhope sat on the Conservative Party Board in London. In June 2009 Kirkhope helped to set up (with the Rt. Hon. William Hague), and then became the interim chairman of, a new European Parliament group the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) of which the UK Conservatives became founding members moving from their alliance with the EPP. He was then a candidate to become the permanent chairman of the bloc but he chose to step aside in favour of Polish MEP Michał Kamiński after Kamiński was denied one of the vice president of the European Parliament positions by then-Conservative Edward McMillan-Scott deciding to stand as an Independent without the support of his delegation or the new group. Kirkhope was appointed deputy chairman of the ECR Group by Kamiński in return for his gesture. He stood again for the presidency after Kamiński stepped down 2 years later but was controversially defeated by Martin Callanan. Further steps to assume a leading role in the group were rebuffed. Kirkhope continued as Justice and Home Affairs spokesman with strong interests in the EP/USA delegation and was re-appointed to these roles following the 2014 European Elections where he again led the Party list in Yorkshire and the Humber. House of Lords Following the referendum vote for Britain to leave the European Union 2016, David Cameron resigned as prime minister. His resignation honours list named Kirkhope as an nominee for a life peerage. In the afternoon of 1 September Kirkhope was created Baron Kirkhope of Harrogate, of Harrogate in the County of North Yorkshire. Peers are disqualified from sitting and voting in the House of Lords while serving as a Member of the European Parliament by virtue of sections 3 and 4 of the European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008. And so Kirkhope relinquished his position as MEP. Following his introduction in the House of Lords, he has subsequently become a Member