Career
Walker unsuccessfully contested Blackburn at the 1935 general election. He was elected at the 1945 general election as Member of Parliament for Rossendale, at the age of 70, becoming one of only a handful of first-time MPs in their seventies. There is some possibility that he was the oldest ever first-time Member of Parliament elected at a general election, but there is some uncertainty about his exact date of birth and that of a few other elderly MPs.
Walker did not stand again at the 1950 general election, when the Rossendale seat was held for Labour by Anthony Greenwood.