After unsuccessfully contesting Hitchin against Labour's Shirley Williams in 1970, Luce was first elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and Shoreham in a by-election in 1971.

Luce was appointed the parliamentary private secretary to the Minister of Trade and Consumer Affairs in 1972.

[6] In 1997, he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar,[6] an office he held until 2000,[7] and he was created a life peer,[6] on 2 October 2000 as Baron Luce, of Adur in the County of West Sussex.

[13] Luce is president of the Voluntary Arts Network, and is High Steward of Westminster Abbey.

[14] Lord Luce was portrayed by Jonathan Coy in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial The Falklands Play.

His father's older brother was Admiral Sir David Luce, First Sea Lord (1963–1966).

His maternal grandfather was Vice Admiral Sir Trevylyan Napier, who was the Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station (1919–1920).