Wilson joined the Conservatives, and was elected as one of three councillors for Thames Ward of Reading Borough Council in 1992, serving one term. In 1997, he unsuccessfully contested Bolton North East at that year's general election. In 2003 he was elected for the Caversham Ward of Reading Borough Council, in a by-election for a one-year term. The following year, he was again elected a councillor for Thames ward. Following his election as Member of Parliament, he stood down from the Council in May 2006.
MP in the 2005–2010 parliament
Wilson was selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Reading East using a pioneering primary system, which opened the selection to non-party members for the first time. At the 2005 General Election he faced the Labour candidate and councillor, Tony Page. Page had replaced sitting MP, Labour's Jane Griffiths, who had been de-selected by her party. Wilson won 15,557 votes against Page's 15,082 votes. The Conservative share of the vote increased by 3.4%. After his election, Wilson made his maiden speech on 23 May 2005. He served on the Education and Skills Select Committee, selected by the committee chair. Here he played a role in the committee stage of the Education and Inspections Bill, on issues such as Special Educational Needs. In July 2007 Wilson was promoted to the Conservative frontbench as Shadow Higher Education Minister replacing Boris Johnson. The MP, during his terms of office, promoted a major anti knife-crime campaign of Reading's papers; to do so meeting with crime victims' families and Thames Valley Police. Wilson successfully lobbied the DfT, Network Rail and local council to secure funding for the expansion and increase in facilities at Reading railway station – associated with investment into high rise and mid rise offices, retail and hotels in Reading. He jointly with former Labour MP Martin Salter successfully lobbied for the extension of Crossrail services to and from Reading, providing direct trains to much of Central London, and western parts of Essex and Kent.
MP in the 2010–2015 parliament
On 6 May 2010, Wilson was re-elected by the people of Reading East with a majority of 15.2% of those who voted and 42.6% of the vote. In the resulting Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government from May 2010, the Liberal Democrats shared in ministerial positions. Wilson was among Shadow Ministers in the previous Parliament that were not offered a position as a Minister in coalition. In 2010 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt MP. In July 2014 the MP stated that he would have accepted an undisclosed ministerial position but wished to use his spare time to publish a book on the scandals involving former MP Chris Huhne and the Chief Whip's plebgate incident each of which meant they lost their ministerial positions. He had earlier been offered a position as a junior government whip but refused this as still writing the same book. Critics, unnamed in a BBC interview with Wilson, attributed his decision to decline a promotion to their perception that the Conservative Party was likely to lose both of its Reading seats and said that in writing this sort of, the government may prefer not to promote Wilson. The Prime Minister's office appointed Wilson to the government as a minister on 27 September 2014, following the resignation of Brooks Newmark following allegations in Daily Mirror that Newmark had sent sexually explicit images to an undercover reporter He became the Minister for Civil Society which entails charities, volunteering and social enterprise, which he accepted a month after finishing the book, which he assessed as incompatible with being in a senior government or opposition role.
MP in the 2015–2017 parliament
On 8 May 2015, Wilson was again re-elected by the people of Reading East, with 23,217 votes and a majority of 6,520, compared to 7,605 in 2010. Shortly after retaining his seat in the 2015 general election, Wilson sparked controversy with a remark on Twitter in which he seemed to show a lack of interest in solving his constituency's rising homelessness problem. When asked about how his party's cuts would help solve it, he responded with "Don't be a bad loser." This sparked considerable outrage online, including a petition on 38 Degrees for him to be removed from office. In July 2015, he was forced to defend his claims for travel expenses, which included 9p for a 352-yard car journey to a constituency event and 60p for a journey on his bicycle between his constituency office, the railway station and home. He said that putting such small costs on expenses might seem "odd", but said that over a year mileage "does add up". He pointed out he had not claimed any accommodation expenses in London since becoming an MP in 2005, saving taxpayers "hundreds of thousands of pounds. However, as I do commute most days it does mean I incur parking and mileage expenses instead". In the run-up to the EU referendum of 2016, Wilson publicly indicated that he believed the UK should remain a member of the European Union whilst not actively campaigning for it since he believed that he should stay neutral. In 2017 he voted to trigger article 50.
On 8 June 2017, Wilson was defeated in the general election called by Theresa May in an unsuccessful attempt to increase her majority prior to the negotiations over the exit from the European Union. He received 23,344 votes, but came second to Matt Rodda, standing for the Labour Party, with 27,093 votes, a majority of 3,759.
