Following the resignation of Lord Gardiner of Kimble in May 2021, he was made a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

[8] He transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers on 8 August 1984, thereby ending his military career but maintaining call-up liability.

[9] He was elected in 1991 to Newbury District Council, and became Conservative group leader in 1994, in opposition to the then-ruling Liberal Democrats.

Benyon contested the Newbury constituency at the 1997 general election but lost heavily to the 1993 by-election incumbent Liberal Democrat David Rendel.

Benyon made his maiden speech on 20 May 2005 and served on the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2005 to 2007, when he became an Opposition Whip.

He was the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2009 until the 2010 general election when he entered government.

[10] Benyon was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the first Cameron Ministry.

[12] In 2012, while Wildlife Minister, Benyon refused a request from other MPs that possession of carbofuran, a deadly poison used to kill raptors that is banned in Canada and the European Union, should be made a criminal offence.

[13] Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was quoted as saying: "The minister's shocking refusal to outlaw the possession of a poison used only by rogue gamekeepers to illegally kill birds of prey would be inexplicable were it not for his own cosy links to the shooting lobby".

Back in 2004, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution proposed that 30% of the United Kingdom's waters should become reserves preventing fishing or any other kind of extraction.

[15] Also in 2013, Benyon's policy relating to access to rivers and his role as an owner of fishing rights was criticised.

[18] In 2017, Benyon was accused of nepotism by Private Eye after he hired his sister, Catherine Haig, as a part-time senior researcher in his office just before a parliamentary ban on such practices came into force.

[22] On 13 May 2021, Benyon was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity following the resignation of Lord Gardiner of Kimble.