The same year he complained about the 'colour bar' being operated by British Rail and the National Union of Railwaymen, preventing black immigrants from working in certain posts.

Wade's local base was threatened when the pact between Conservatives and Liberals for municipal elections was called off in 1956, but a reconciliation was later agreed.

His nonconformist faith bade him to join the Parliamentary Temperance Group and he called for restrictions on licensing in the late 1950s because he believed public drunkenness was increasing.

In 1958, a movement promoted by Edward Martell grew for a formal alliance of Conservatives and Liberals in an "Anti-Socialist Front".

The Liberal Party Executive rejected the idea, whereupon Martell demanded a statement from Wade and from Arthur Holt, MP for Bolton West, who had been elected as a result of a similar pact.

Wade was a sponsor of the Bills intended to allow Peers to renounce unwanted titles which were introduced after Anthony Wedgwood Benn inherited the Viscountcy of Stansgate in 1960.

In July 1962, Wade sponsored a drinks reception at the House of Commons on behalf of a whisky company, having been asked to by former Liberal MP and public relations consultant Frank Owen.

Sir Herbert Butcher, chairman of the Kitchen Committee, expressed his concern that the facilities of the House were being used on behalf of public relations companies.

Wade did lose his seat to Labour, but only by 1,280 votes; he was praised for a strong electoral performance and asked by the Liberals to stand again.

In the 1970s Wade launched a campaign to make the European Convention on Human Rights part of United Kingdom law.