Wilson was elected to the first session of the newly re-established Scottish Parliament, as one of five SNP MSPs to represent Central Scotland through the Additional Members System.
[1] Whilst an MSP he served variously in the Shadow Cabinet as the SNP Finance, Economy, Lifelong Learning and Transport Spokesperson.
He was widely viewed by commentators as a rising star of the SNP, an iconoclast and pro-market economist he made much headway selling the idea of fiscal autonomy now called 'Devo-Max' to the mainstream business, media and society.
He later wrote a column for the Sunday Mail calling on Scots to support the English football team in the 2002 world cup finals.
In 2003 he came within 520 votes of unseating Cathie Craigie in the first past the post contest for the Cumbernauld and Kilsyth seat, but when only three SNP MSPs were returned from Central Scotland he lost his place as an MSP.
[6] He left Charlotte Street Partners in February 2023 before joining the executive committee of Santander UK plc as Director of Communications and Responsible Banking in March 2023.