Political Career
Needham was a member of the Somerset County Council between 1967 and 1974. The latter year he stood unsuccessfully for parliament for the safe Labour seat of Pontefract and Castleford. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1977 but does not use the title. This is an Irish peerage and did not bar him from sitting in the House of Commons. At the 1979 general election, he was returned as Member of Parliament for Chippenham in Wiltshire. He was one of the "Wiltshire Wets", Conservative MPs from the county who expressed concern at the perceived loss of jobs resulting from the "monetarist" policies of Margaret Thatcher. His constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, when he was returned to the House of Commons for the new North Wiltshire constituency. He held the seat until he retired from Parliament at the 1997 general election.
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