[4] At a celebratory dinner, he said would seek to attempt to emulate his Whig colleague, Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton, who he described as a "friend and advocate of civil and religious liberty and of parliamentary reform".
In terms of reform, he presented a petition from Tamworth constituents in favour, voted for the second reading of the Grey ministry's bill, and rejected Isaac Gascoyne's wrecking amendment.
[2] At the 1831 general election, he again declared his support for reform, also describing the King as having "nobly helped us to throw off the yoke which the boroughmongers would impose on us", and praising the "patriotic and independent spirit" shown by "all classes of voters".
[2] Outside of reform measures, he voted to reduce public salaries, for Lord Ebrington's confidence motion, and to punish those who had been found guilty of bribery at the election for Dublin.
In one speech in 1832, he criticised ministers for planning to recover money from Irish tithe-payers in order to pass it to the clergy, and warned legal action by the attorney-general to evict tenant farmers would leave "misery and desolation, where he found poverty and wretchedness".