Townshend entered politics, standing as an Independent Conservative candidate (i.e. not supporting Lloyd George's Coalition Government), and was elected in a by-election in 1920 as the Member of Parliament for The Wrekin. In the House of Commons he spoke occasionally on matters of Middle East affairs and ex-servicemen. However post-war reports surfaced about how badly the troops under his command had suffered at the hands of the Turkish Army as prisoners of war after their capture at the fall of Kut, thousands of them having died in Ottoman captivity, many having been brutalized and murdered. Townshend's daring imperial hero reputation lost much of its former lustre. Post-war military commentators and historians were increasingly critical of his failure to defeat the Ottoman Empire's force at Ctesiphon, and his apparent passivity during the siege of Kut. He stood down at the 1922 general election.