He joined the government in 1981 as a whip. He held various junior ministerial positions at the Department for Employment, and the Department for the Environment. He was made Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1989 and stayed until 1993 when he was made Secretary of State for the Environment.
He is noted for the way he fed a beefburger to his daughter at the height of the BSE panic in 1990, and for delaying a ban on beef offal in 1989.