He also worked on obscenity cases and briefed barrister John Mortimer on the film Last Tango in Paris.
In 1971, in the East Bengal (now Bangladesh) refugee crisis (during the Bangladesh Liberation War) he said it was "the worst tragedy the world had known" and the following year, when Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of Asians from Uganda he said that returning them would be "like sending Jews back to Hitler in the 1930s"[3] Having been involved in housing case work as a solicitor, following Norman St John-Stevas introduction of the parliamentary select committees in 1979, he served on the PSC concerning the environment because housing was part of its remit.
He made the unique decision to resign and seek re-election at a by-election after his change of allegiance.
It was the source of disquiet among the leadership of the SDP, and the constituency party choose the former Labour MP as their candidate without the approval of national headquarters.
[4] He lost to the Conservative candidate Angela Rumbold and was pushed into third place when he stood again at the 1983 general election.