 Shortly after the 1964 election, Sorensen was persuaded to accept a life peerage to make way in a safe seat for the Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker, who had lost his seat in Smethwick.However, the plan failed and on 25 January Buxton won the 1965 Leyton by-election by a narrow margin of only 205 votes, on a reduced turnout.David Dimbleby, later to become the anchor (from 1979) of the BBC Election results programmes, reported the result live from a snowy Leyton town hall for the BBC.