He fought Birmingham Sparkbrook as the Labour candidate in 1931, but was heavily defeated by Leo Amery in the Conservative landslide of that year.
In 1949 he was raised to the peerage by the Labour government of Clement Attlee as Baron Archibald, of Woodside in the City of Glasgow.
He served under Attlee as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard (Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords) from June to October 1951.
He married secondly Catherine Edith Mary, daughter of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Bonar Law and former wife of Kent Colwell, in 1961.
He was succeeded in the barony by his son from his first marriage, George Christopher Archibald, who, however, disclaimed the peerage for life only a few days later.