 He was elected as the Tory Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone at the general election in March 1820 and held the seat until 1830, when he did not stand again in Maidstone.Wells was a strong opponent of the Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1828, declaring that he would fight to defend the Protestant Constitution "until he was up to his knees in blood".He increasingly moved towards the Whigs and was very much his own man.