 He declined to stand as the Liberal candidate for Dunbartonshire in 1889 but took an active part in supporting John Sinclair's candidature in the 1892 general election, in which 50 years of Conservative domination in the constituency was broken.In 1893, on the recommendation of Gladstone, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Overtoun, of Overtoun in the County of Dumbarton.In 1906 his nephew James Dundas White was returned for Dunbartonshire.