 King defected to the Conservative Party in 1951 and contested Southampton Itchen in 1959.In 1964, he stood in South Dorset and unseated Labour's Guy Barnett, who had gained the seat in a by-election two years earlier.He was a member of parliamentary delegations to Bermuda and Washington DC in 1946, Tokyo 1947, Cairo and the Middle East 1967, Jordan and the Persian Gulf 1968, Kenya and the Seychelles 1969, Malta 1970 (leader), and Malawi 1971 (leader).