 However, the party's hold on the constituency since 1945 also depended upon support in the rural areas and this became increasingly unstable in the 1970s.Roderick's majority fell to 2,277 at the General Election of February 1974 and only recovered to 3.012 in October when the party did much better nationally.Following Labour's return to office in 1974, Roderick became successively parliamentary private secretary to Eric Heffer, Tony Benn nad, from 1975, Michael Foot.