 At the 1950 general election, Moody's constituency was merged with others and he was selected instead for Gateshead East where he opposed Konni Zilliacus, who had been expelled after signing the Nenni telegram.He beat Zilliacus into third place and emerged 1,719 votes ahead of the Conservative candidate.His majority increased to over 5,000 in the 1951 general election, when Zilliacus did not stand.