He was the Member of Parliament for Grantham from 1951 to 1979 and held ministerial posts in the governments of Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, and Edward Heath.

He became chairman of the county glasshouse section of the National Farmers Union and of the publicity and parliamentary committee.

[2] He was elected Member of Parliament for Grantham in 1951, a seat he held until 1979.

He served under Harold Macmillan as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1957 to 1960, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1960 to 1961, as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1961 to 1963 and as Secretary of State for War in 1963, under Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Minister of Labour from 1963 to 1964 and under Edward Heath as Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 1970 to 1972 and as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1972 to 1974.

Godber was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1963 and in 1979 he was made a life peer as Baron Godber of Willington, of Willington in the County of Bedfordshire.