Spicer joined the Conservative Party, and at the 1966 general election, he challenged Manny Shinwell in the safe Labour Easington constituency as the youngest parliamentary candidate in the country against the eldest.

In January 1990, he was promoted to become a Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, but after the ousting of Margaret Thatcher in November 1990, he left the government payroll over his opposition to British participation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

[6] His majority declined in 1997 in keeping with the general trend across the country, but he kept his seat which had become West Worcestershire after boundary changes that year.

"[9] On 26 March 2006, Spicer announced that he would not contest the Worcestershire West seat at the 2010 election and that he would retire as an MP.

[11] He was sworn of the Privy Council on 15 May 2013 at Buckingham Palace; he thus acquired the post-nominal letters "PC" for life.

[12] Spicer died at the Cromwell Hospital in Kensington, London,[14] from complications of Parkinson's disease and leukaemia on 29 May 2019.