 He rebuilt the house in grand Georgian style to a design by architect James Wyatt.In the 1780 general election, Lawley was returned as Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwickshire, being the choice of the Whig manufacturing interests of Birmingham, which by this period could name one of two Warwickshire's two MPs without opposition.Despite this, he was not himself a Whig partisan but
"had given the most incontrovertible indications of a sincere zeal in their cause, was unanimously selected as the voluntary object of their unbiassed preference...and at the county meeting, held a short time afterwards, he was named and accepted without any opposition.