In 1972, Tope captured the seat of
Sutton and Cheam at
a parliamentary by-election from the
Conservatives for the
Liberal Party. He became the first Liberal to represent the seat. The Conservatives retook it at the
February 1974 general election. Tope contested the seat again in
October 1974 without success. In November 1973, Tope was made spokesperson for the Liberal Party on health, social security and Northern Ireland. From 1974 to 2014 Tope was a councillor on
Sutton London Borough Council. He was leader of the council from 1986 to 1999. Having been appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
1991 Birthday Honours, Tope was created a
life peer as
Baron Tope, of
Sutton in the
London Borough of Sutton on 4 October 1994. He became the Liberal Democrats' spokesperson on education. He was a member of the
European Committee of the Regions and is the only person to have served as a member of a European Institution, a member of the UK Parliament, a member of a regional government structure and as a
borough councillor all at the same time. At the
London Assembly, he was leader of the Liberal Democrat Group until 2006, a member of the Audit Panel and member of the Transport Committee. He was also a member of the
Metropolitan Police Authority, which oversees the
Metropolitan Police. He retired after two terms at the
2008 London Assembly election. ==References==