In 1940 Taylor was co-opted onto Bolton Town Council as a Conservative for Tonge Ward (elections having been suspended due to the outbreak of war).
Philip Bell QC, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bolton East, was appointed as a County Court Judge in the summer of 1960, which required a byelection to replace him.
The byelection saw the decision of the Liberal Party to field a candidate, which broke a local pact which had held for 10 years whereby the Liberals left the Bolton East seat alone, and in return the Conservatives did not stand in Bolton West; the pact had achieved its objective of preventing the Labour Party from winning either.
On taking his seat, one Labour MP immediately recommended that Taylor should be put on the Kitchen Committee of the House of Commons.
In 1962 he tabled an amendment calling on limits on the importation of cloth and yarn to prevent dumping by foreign competitors.