Laud, who is openly gay, gained some notability as the only black member of the Conservative Monday Club, for whom he produced, in October 1984, a Policy Paper entitled The Law, Order and Race Relations, under the auspices of the Club's Immigration and Race Relations Committee. He subsequently became one of the army of low-paid researchers working for Conservative Members of Parliament in the mid-1980s. He unsuccessfully fought a seat in Wandsworth council's Graveney ward in May 1986, and won 937 votes.

During his career, Laud has contributed to speeches for several well-known Conservatives including, it is said, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Heseltine and even Alan Clark. He is briefly mentioned in both John Major's autobiography and Alan Clark's diaries. Moving on from Westminster, he was employed in the City of London in equity finance. He established a political lobbying company, Ludgate Laud, in the early 1990s. As a parliamentary lobbyist, Derek Laud was mentioned in the House of Commons by Labour MP Martin Linton in his maiden parliamentary speech.

Parliamentary candidacy
In the 1997 General Election, Laud was selected as Conservative candidate for the seat of Tottenham, a constituency with a very large non-white population (and which has been represented by black Labour MPs since 1987), but stepped down shortly before the election citing "business reasons".

Subsequent activities
Derek Laud had long been an enthusiastic fox hunter, and in 1999, he became the first black Master of Foxhounds for the New Forest Hunt.

Laud has a wide circle of friends in the Conservative Party. In 2001, he provided an for his friends Neil and Christine Hamilton when they were falsely accused by Nadine Milroy-Sloan of sexual assault. (Ms Milroy-Sloan was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.)

Big Brother
Laud's background and audition videos for Big Brother showed him with his friend, British ex-boxer and celebrity, Chris Eubank.

In the Big Brother House, Laud was a popular and eccentric character: at various points he composed poems relating to his experience, and recited some of them to his fellow housemates and to Big Brother in the Diary room. He also sometimes made use of his knowledge of Shakespeare's plays.

At the end of one of the Big Brother tasks, Laud remarked, "I've been working like a black." Derek caused some controversy when, in the diary room during nominations, he remarked (presumably in jest, given that he himself is black) of fellow housemate Science:

"In Science I have found the first black person who makes me want to become a member of the BNP."

Many jokes were made about Laud's potential as a candidate for the then vacant Conservative Party leadership. On a more realistic note, many have called - including some within the Conservative Party - for his selection as a PPC once more at a subsequent election.

During his time in the House, in conversation with Roberto, Laud expressed his opinion of Americans stating:

"They're always going on about freedom and liberty when they oppress people, they imprison people without trial, I hate them. They're not democratic despite lecturing the rest of the world about democracy... and then they wonder why they're so hated all over the world."
On at least two occasions during his time in the Big Brother house Derek, as a gay man, expressed opposition to gay parenting and adoption. On one occasion he argued that the children of same-sex parents would be bullied at school.

Laud was the tenth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House after losing in a head-to-head with Eugene Sully. He was said to have received the best reaction from the crowds on his eviction night, During his eviction interview with Davina McCall, he told of his plans to publish a collection of children's stories which he had been writing before entering the Big Brother house.

After Big Brother
Laud partnered Edwina Currie on a charity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 17 September 2005.

During the Conservative Party conference in October 2005, he commented that most politicians (with one exception) would not have succeed on "Big Brother", saying "Good looks are very important and David Cameron is very attractive."[4]

Laud appeared on BBC's Question Time which was held in Newbury, Berkshire in November 2005. Derek's political views, which some characterise as populist right-wing, tended to polarize people for or against him. Laud said, speaking in favour of longer pub opening hours: 'I think as adults - and responsible adults at that - we should be able to determine that (when to drink) for ourselves. ... I think that essentially what we've got to be doing here is to encourage people to take responsibilities for themselves and get the state out of our private lives.' About education in Britain he said: '44,000 people this year at 16 years old left school without a single GCSE - that is a national disaster. So where is Blair's radicalism? He will fall short of his place in history if he doesn't live up to the radicalism of Asquith in 1908 and Clement Atlee in 1945 and Thatcher in 1979 if he doesn't get this right. He has to take on these people who've got this taboo about the private sector having any part in education, and i deplore it.'

Graham Norton, on The Bigger Picture, asked his audience to take a good look at Mr Laud "because you'll probably never meet another black gay Tory."

Recently, he also appeared on Webcameron declaring that he would like to stand for election in the up coming general election.