Ailesbury was lord and master of all he surveyed in the borough of Marlborough, holding virtually all the voters in his pocket, so alleged the whig reformer, Henry Hobhouse MP in the Great Reform bill debates of 1831. He signed the Earl of Mansfield's dissentient protest during the third reading of the bill. In 1843 Ailesbury voted against a bill to remove restrictions on Jews from becoming members. He was amongst a large number of Tory peers in the die hard lobbies against extending the franchise.