Gorges was returned for the county in succession to his cousin Lowther Gorges in 1792 and supported opposition. Though the grandson of Lady Beresford and father-in-law of Edward Cooke, under-secretary at the Castle, who married his eldest daughter in 1791 with a portion of nearly £10,000, Gorges could not be brought to support the Union: and this despite lucrative offers to relieve his financial embarrassment—money, the collectorship of the port of Dublin for his second son John and the revival of a family peerage.
The Castle were uncertain of his intentions at Westminster but he appears to have given a silent support to government, except on 7 May 1802 when he was reported to have been swayed by John Foster’s anti-Union speech into joining the minority. He died in Dublin 14 June 1802, a fortnight before the close of the session. Much of his estate had to be sold to pay his debts.