At the end of the Great War, Skelton stood aside and allowed the Coalition candidate in East Perthshire to be elected unopposed.

Skelton was a talented journalist and wrote frequently for The Spectator, including four articles in 1923 under the heading "Constructive Conservatism".

The group lobbied to make sure that Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin resisted the influence of reactionary elements in the Conservative Party and instead implemented progressive legislation.

By 1935 Skelton was terminally ill with cancer and after several weeks in a nursing home he died in Edinburgh, aged 55, on 22 November 1935.

Once viewed as a prospective Conservative leader and a prominent Cabinet minister, Skelton's influence, though fleeting in the public eye, was acknowledged by Harold Macmillan in his memoirs.

Macmillan's successor as Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, owed his early political career to Skelton, having been his PPS from 1931 to 1935.