Wilkinson remained on the backbenches for most of his parliamentary career, apart from two brief periods as a
Parliamentary private secretary (PPS): to the Minister of State for Industry from 1979 to 1980 and to the Secretary of State for Defence from 1981 to 1982. A former member of the
Royal Air Force (RAF), he spoke frequently in debates on defence and from 1979 to 1990 he was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of The
Western European Union (WEU). He also served as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe. Wilkinson was one of the
Maastricht Rebels, from whom the Conservative
whip was withdrawn when they voted against legislation to ratify the
Maastricht Treaty on European Union. Wilkinson and the other rebels continued to oppose the European policy of Conservative
Prime Minister John Major for much of the 1992–97 parliament. In the 1983 book
Alternative Approaches to British Defence Policy he argued for greater strengthening of British forces to respond to potential threats by the
Eastern Bloc. He was president of the European Freedom Council, a group associated with the
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, and co-founded the British-Ukrainian All-Party Parliamentary Group following the
Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. and Ukraine's accession to the
European Union. He opposed the relocation of Kosovar refugees from the war to Ruislip, saying in May 1999 that the area already had a "very substantial burden". ==Personal life==