Returned unopposed for Ludlow on the Clive-Powis interest before he was of age, Edward Clive seems after his father’s death to have been directed politically by his father’s friends, Wedderburn and Strachey, voting with the North Administration in every division for which a list of its supporters is extant. At the opening of the session in November 1778 North asked him to second the Address, but Clive excused himself;
Votes always with the ministry, and entirely under the direction of Mr. Wedderburn, who has the English peerage in view for him ...
In 1780 he met with strong opposition at Ludlow. In the new House Clive again voted with the North Administration; but was abroad at the time of the division on Shelburne’s peace preliminaries. When the Coalition Government was being formed Clive was apparently considered for some office;