After losing the premiership, Gorton was elected deputy leader under McMahon and appointed Minister for Defence. He was sacked for disloyalty after a few months. After the Coalition's defeat at the 1972 federal election, Gorton unsuccessfully stood as McMahon's replacement. He briefly served as an opposition frontbencher under Billy Snedden, but stood down in 1974 and spent the rest of his career as a backbencher. Gorton resigned from the Liberal Party when Malcolm Fraser was elected leader, and at the 1975 election mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the Senate as an independent. He later spent several years as a political commentator, retiring from public life in 1981.