TWO political figures from the North-East are among the 21 new working peers who have been appointed to the House of Lords.

Former MEP Martin Callanan and Labour Party activist Chris Lennie will sit in the upper chamber of Parliament following the announcement today. (Friday, August 8)

Mr Callanan, 53, a Conservative Party member, from Gateshead, was a Member of the European Parliament for the North-East and chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group for 15 years following his election in from 1999.

He failed to win re-election earlier in May, becoming the first ever sitting chairman of a European parliamentary group to lose his seat.

Following the announcement he said: “I am very honoured. I don’t think it has sunk in yet. I don’t really feel like a lord. I am just an ordinary lad from Gateshead but I am very pleased.”

Mr Callanan worked as a Conservative councillor on Tyne and Wear County Council from 1983 until the authority was abolished in 1986 and subsequently Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council from 1987 to 1996.

He was the last Conservative to win an election in Gateshead.

Mr Callanan was employed as a project engineer at Scottish and Newcastle breweries from 1986 to 1998 before he was elected to the European Parliament.

He unsuccessfully stood as a parliamentary candidate for Washington in the 1987 General Election, Gateshead East in 1992 , and Tynemouth in 1997.

He added: “I was born and bred in the North-East, I come from the region and represented it on the European Parliament for 15 years.

“To a certain extent I want to continue doing that. I love the North-East and want to continue doing what I think is best for the region.”

Chris Lennie, lives in Tynemouth, having moved to the region in 1983 to study English and history at Newcastle Polytechnic.

The 61-year-old was previously Deputy General Secretary of the Labour Party and responsible for party fundraising.

The father-of-two, who also recently became a grandfather, said: “I am flattered. I have spent almost all of my adult working life in the North-East and will continue to do so and will spend my time doing that realise our proper share of opportunities for the passionate deserving people in the region.”

After the announcement, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said: “Chris Lennie has been a valued servant of the labour and trade union movements and a lifelong charity fundraiser.

“I am sure he will bring this perspective and experience to his work in the Lords.”