Skene joined the Labour Party and stood unsuccessfully in Kinross and West Perthshire in both February and October 1974 general elections, and served on the party's Scottish Executive. In 1976, he was a founder of the Scottish Labour Party (SLP), a split from the Labour Party. He wrote a paper on rural land policy for the party, and was the secretary of the northern "Yes for Scotland" campaign during the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum. However, shortly before the referendum, he joined the Liberal Party. He was elected to Perth and Kinross District Council as the Independent councillor for Blair Atholl and Kinloch Rannoch in 1980.