He first entered Parliament in 1806 and held a succession of offices, including those of President of the Board of Trade (1818–23), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1823–27), and Secretary for War and the Colonies (1827). As Viscount Goderich he succeeded George Canning as Prime Minister in August 1827, but, ill-suited to the task, resigned the following January. He was created Earl of Ripon in 1833.