After his retirement from Parliament, he became High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, but died within months of taking the post.

[2] Walding stood unsuccessfully against Bill Brown for the Palmerston North seat in the 1966 election.

Following Brown's sudden death in 1967, Walding successfully contested the resulting 1967 by-election against four others: Gordon Cruden (National Party), John O'Brien (Social Credit Party), Goldingham (Progress) and Jamie Wedderspoon (Democratic Labour).

[1] He solved New Zealand's problem with a beef sales quota to the United States while on a visit to Mexico.

[7] He travelled with Agriculture and Fisheries minister Colin Moyle frequently to many overseas countries, particularly Iran, Russia and China, to open more export markets for New Zealand's primary produce.

[9][10] In 1978 he in turn defeated Lithgow to regain the Palmerston North seat and return the parliament.

[11][12] In 1979 he stood again for the Labour Party presidency but was defeated by Jim Anderton 586 votes to 527.

[2] A group of Labour MPs (Michael Bassett, Roger Douglas, Mike Moore and Richard Prebble) organised a challenge to Anderton for the presidency at the 1982 party conference.

[14] He later became a key advisor to David Lange while he was leader of the opposition and was heavily involved in Labour's successful 1984 election campaign.

[2] He collapsed following an evening dinner at his official residence in Chelsea before being rushed to St. Stephen's Hospital shortly after 10pm.