Knox first sought election for
Birmingham Stechford at the
1964 and
1966 elections, but was beaten by the
Labour Cabinet Minister Roy Jenkins on each occasion. In 1967, he was the Conservative candidate in
a by-election at
Nuneaton caused by the resignation of
Frank Cousins, but was defeated by Labour candidate
Les Huckfield. He was elected Conservative
MP for
Leek, Staffordshire from
1970 to
1983, and for
Staffordshire Moorlands from 1983 to
1997, when he retired. Knox, once in Parliament, joined what was to become the Macleod Group led by
Nicholas Scott that was considered to be for Conservative MPs that were pro-European and progressive on social issues and he was noted as strongly supporting Britain's entry to the
EEC. Knox protested against a decision to allow the
Palestine Liberation Organization to open an office in London. He supported the
abolition of capital punishment. In 1973, Knox was appointed
Parliamentary Private Secretary to
Ian Gilmour, then
Minister of State for Defence. Knox was appointed one of three vice-chairmen of the Conservative Party under the chairman
Willie Whitelaw in 1974. He also became President of the Macleod Group, and in that position issued a statement in January 1975 supporting
Edward Heath as Conservative leader for the
leadership election in February. His open support for Heath probably led to his dismissal as vice-chairman in March by new leader
Margaret Thatcher. In September 1975, after the Macleod Group merged with two other 'left-wing' Tory groups in June to form the
Tory Reform Group, Knox became its vice-president with
Nicholas Scott. Knox also became chairmen of the
Parliamentary Group for World Government. In December, he voted against the return of
capital punishment, unlike his new leader, who voted for its return. On the issue of
Scottish devolution, Knox clashed with the Conservative Shadow Cabinet. Knox argued that "meaningful devolution of political power for Scotland" was necessary now to avoid Scots feeling the need to vote for separatist parties. By this, he meant that the body needed to have legislative powers. This ran counter to
Francis Pym, who was his party's spokesman for devolution at the time, whose policy was to form a constitutional body that had neither legislative or executive powers. In February 1978, he broke from the Tory ranks and voted with the Labour Government and for the
Scotland Bill. ==Death==