 He was elected Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast South in a 1963 by-election, and served until February 1974 when he lost as a Pro-Assembly Unionist to the Reverend Robert Bradford of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition.Pounder was also a Member of the European Parliament from 1973 to 1974.From 1964 to 1967, he served as Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Parliamentary Party.