 Elected with a majority of 793, he was given the financial portfolio in the SNP Parliamentary grouping, but lost his seat at the 1979 general election along with 8 of his colleagues.Although he garnered only 287 fewer votes than he had when he was elected, the Conservatives increased their vote by 3,609 to leave Crawford trailing by 3,103 votes.Not long after his defeat he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage from which he recovered to contest the Perth and Kinross constituency in the 1983 election, but lost to Nicholas Fairbairn, the Conservative incumbent MP, who won with a 6,733 majority.