for which Elliot was made Doctor of Science in 1923. He lost this seat in the 1923 general election but regained a place in the House of Commons months later in the 1924 Glasgow Kelvingrove by-election, a seat he held until July 1945. Junior Minister In January 1923 Elliot was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health for Scotland in the government of Stanley Baldwin. He briefly lost the post during the Labour Party's 1924 first MacDonald ministry, but regained it after Baldwin's return to power that same year. In July 1926 Elliot was made to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, a role he filled until 1929. He made an official visit to Colonial Nigeria in 1927. He was involved in the passage of the Local Government Act 1929, as well as reforms to administration in Scotland in 1928 and changes to Scottish ministers' positions in 1926. In 1924 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Robert Blyth Greig, Frederick Orpen Bower, Arthur Crichton Mitchell, and William Archer Porter Tait. Elliot was involved in the Empire Marketing Board from October 1927, having been appointed president of the Imperial Research Conference in Westminster Hall. and with John Boyd Orr began a project that conducted experiments in 1927 proving the value of feeding free milk to children in schools, and this persuaded Elliot to extend the pilot scheme to all Scotland's schools by legislation. Elliot was a supporter of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit and its work on documentary films, particularly those of John Grierson, including Drifters in 1929. In May 1928, Elliot and Arthur Samuel, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury were reported to be working together in helping the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill in the budget debate. After the formation of the first National Government (1931), Elliot was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury, a post he retained in the following second National Government (1931–1935). Early in 1932 Elliot was made a Privy Counsellor. Cabinet Minister Political dispute over the British Empire Economic Conference held in Ottawa in summer 1932 – in which the British Dominions' governments discussed solutions to the Great Depression – eventually caused the replacement of the then Home Secretary Herbert Samuel with Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet. In the same cabinet reshuffle, it was generally anticipated that Elliot would be appointed Secretary of State for Scotland,