During his time in Parliament, he served as a whip under Edward Heath, and then was a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher. He was moved back to the back-benches in 1981, and started ascending the pole to become chairman of the 1922 committee - becoming vice-chairman in 1983 and chairman in 1994. He was made a knight in 1986, and a member of the Privy Council in 1996.