[1] Clayton first stood for parliament at the 1972 federal election, losing to the incumbent Liberal MP David Hamer in the seat of Isaacs although recording a substantial swing to the ALP.

[1] In parliament, Clayton served on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, including briefly as deputy chair.

[4] Clayton lost his seat to former Liberal MP David Hamer in the ALP's landslide defeat at the 1975 election.

[8] Clayton later moved to Thailand where he was a special lecturer in statistics for over a decade at King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok.

He was a regular contributor to The Nation, an English-language newspaper in Bangkok, writing on education, religion and politics.