Following his election Curry became a member of the Agriculture Select committee until he was promoted to the government of Margaret Thatcher in 1989 as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He was promoted within the same department to Minister of State after the 1992 general election by John Major. A year later he moved sideways to the Department for the Environment where he remained until the Major government fell at the 1997 general election. He became a Member of the Privy Council in 1996.