Buxton came to national attention for a spectacular showing at the polls, prompting
Sir Alex Douglas-Home to declare "The best epitaph on hundred days of socialist government...my friend the member for Leyton". The unconcealed joy was not to last; he was a
Member of Parliament for a little over a year, after winning an unexpected
by-election victory in 1965. Buxton was the Conservative candidate in the safe
Labour constituency of
Leyton at the
1955 general election, losing by 8,244 votes to the long-serving Labour MP
Reginald Sorensen. He was unsuccessful again at the
1959 election and at the
October 1964 general election, when Sorensen's majority was 3,919 votes. Buxton had cast around for another seat but was refused the nomination for the constituency where he lived, and failed to secure the Conservative nomination for
South-West Norfolk. Shortly after the 1964 election, Sorensen was persuaded to accept a
life peerage to make way in a safe seat for the
Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker, who had
lost his seat in
Smethwick. However, the plan failed and on 21 January Buxton won the
1965 Leyton by-election by a narrow margin of only 205 votes, on a reduced turnout.
David Dimbleby, later to become the anchor (from 1979) of the BBC Election results programmes, reported the result live from a snowy
Leyton Town Hall for the
BBC. Gordon Walker regained the seat for
Labour at the
1966 general election, with a comfortable majority. Buxton stood again at the
1970 election, but lost again, by over 5,000 votes. ==Professional life==