 Packer was elected to the Second Protectorate Parliament as MP for Woodstock, Oxfordshire, but he had grown discontented with Cromwell's policies.He argued with Cromwell over the instigation of the Upper House and was deprived of his commands in 1658.Elected to the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659, Packer delivered a speech in which he expressed his profound sense of betrayal by the Cromwellian régime and regret for some of his own actions as a major-general.