 Meanwhile, his academic career flourished, with an appointment as a lecturer in the Department for Extramural Studies at the University of Sheffield

He was selected to fight the constituency of South East Derbyshire, which had the smallest majority in the country (12 votes) going into the 1964 general election.Park duly gained the seat from the Conservatives, by just 873 votes.His maiden speech discarded the usual tradition and attacked the government's policy on nuclear arms.