In 1932, Astor was appointed secretary to
Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, at a
League of Nations Committee of Enquiry in what was then known as
Manchuria. First elected to the
House of Commons in 1935, he served as a
Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for
Fulham East until 1945. Between 1936 and 1937 he was
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
First Lord of the Admiralty,
Samuel Hoare, who was then made
Home Secretary in the new cabinet of
Neville Chamberlain in 1937. In
World War II, he served as a naval intelligence officer, acquiring no distinction, but gaining many influential contacts. He returned as the Conservative MP for
Wycombe in the
1951 general election, serving for ten months. On his father's death in 1952, he inherited his peerages, becoming the 3rd
Viscount Astor and Baron Astor, with a seat in the
House of Lords. This forced a
by-election in Wycombe, which was won by the Conservative candidate
John Hall. Astor then took over the family's
Cliveden estate in
Buckinghamshire, where he and his family continued to live until 1966. Active in
thoroughbred horse racing, he inherited Cliveden Stud, a horse farm and breeding operation in the village of
Taplow near
Maidenhead. During the 1963
Profumo affair, Astor was accused of having an affair with
Mandy Rice-Davies. In response to being told during one of the trials arising out of the scandal that Astor had denied having an affair with her, Rice-Davies famously replied, "
Well he would, wouldn't he?" ==Personal life and death==