Timothy Kirkhope - European Parliament

European Parliament

In June 1999 he was elected to the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber becoming the Conservative spokesman on justice and home affairs and the Chief Whip of the delegation that year. He also served on the Culture, Media, Arts Education and Youth Committee between 1999 and 2002. In 2002 he became the Conservative Party representative on the Convention on the Future of Europe, established to consider the future course for Europe. He was re-selected by Conservative members in Yorkshire and The Humber to head the list of candidates in the European elections in June 2004 in December 2002.

In spring 2003, Kirkhope was asked by the then Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin to look into the workings of the UK asylum system and to make proposals for future party policy. The Kirkhope Commission worked for several months and produced a comprehensive report with 20 specific recommendations.

In July 2004, Kirkhope was elected as the first Vice-Chairman of the European Democrats, serving for a year. After the success of his Asylum Commission, he was asked to head another commission on immigration. This report was presented to the 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 stepped down in November 2007 but was re-elected a year later after his successor, Giles Chichester, was mired in a scandal over parliamentary expenses.

In June 2009 Kirkhope became the interim chairman of the new European Parliament group the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). He was a candidate to become the permanent chairman of the bloc but he chose to step aside for Polish MEP Michał Kamiński after Kamiński was denied one of the Vice President of the European Parliament positions by renegade then-Conservative Edward McMillan-Scott. Kirkhope was later appointed deputy chairman of the ECR Group.