Political Career
He first stood for Parliament at the 1935 general election, when he was unsuccessful in the Conservative-held Oxford constituency.
Gordon Walker did not contest the 1945 general election, but was elected later in 1945 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Smethwick in a by-election on 1 October 1945 after Labour's Alfred Dobbs was killed in a car accident one day after winning the seat at the 1945 general election.
Once in Parliament, Gordon Walker was promoted rapidly through the ranks of Clement Attlee's Labour government. In 1946, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Herbert Morrison, the Leader of the House of Commons. From 1947 to 1950 he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Commonwealth Relations Office, and in 1950 he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, serving until Labour's defeat at the 1951 general election.
At the 1964 general election, following a successful career in opposition, he was destined to become Foreign Secretary in a widely anticipated Labour government; he had held the shadow role for the previous year.
Although Labour did win that election to end 13 years of Conservative rule, Gordon Walker was defeated in controversial circumstances by the Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths, preventing him from taking any immediate role in government. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth but the economic and industrial growth of the years following World War II were coupled with local factory closures, an ageing population and a lack of modern housing. Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the opposition's, and the government's, policies, including immigration policies. Griffiths was also accused of exploiting the slogan "If you want a nigger neighbour, vote Labour". but the Socialist Review claimed that Gordon Walker had himself pandered to such sentiment when his local party ran an eve-of-poll leaflet saying:
Be fair. Immigrants only arrived in Smethwick in large numbers during the past ten years--while the Tory government was in power. You can't blame Labour or Gordon Walker for that. Labour favours continued control of immigration, stricter health checks and deportation of those convicted of criminal offences. Labour will give local authorities greater power to help overcrowding. Labour will provide new and better housing.
He was still appointed to the Foreign Office by Harold Wilson and stood for the safe Labour constituency of Leyton in the Leyton by-election in January 1965, losing again, and was forced to resign as Foreign Secretary. After a sabbatical conducting research in Southeast Asia, he finally won Leyton in the 1966 general election. Following this election, he served in the Cabinet in 1967-8, first as Minister without Portfolio, then as Secretary of State for Education and Science. On his retirement from the Cabinet in 1968, he was made a Companion of Honour.
Gordon Walker retired from the House of Commons at the 1974 general election. On 4 July that same year he was made a life peer as Baron Gordon-Walker, of Leyton in the County of Essex in 1974 and was briefly a Member of the European Parliament.
Read more about this topic: Patrick Gordon Walker
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