quality:correction, structural:expansion
Member of Parliament

Peel entered politics in 1809 at the age of 21, as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel, County Tipperary. With a scant 24 electors on the rolls, he was elected unopposed. His sponsor for the election (besides his father) was the chief secretary for Ireland, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, with whom Peel's political career would be entwined for the next 25 years. Peel made his maiden speech at the start of the 1810 session, when he was chosen by prime minister Spencer Perceval to second the reply to the king's speech. His speech was a sensation, famously described by the Speaker, Charles Abbot, as "the best first speech since that of William Pitt ".

Peel changed constituency twice, becoming one of the two Members for Chippenham in 1812, and then one of those for Oxford University in 1817.