 After the merger of SDP and the Liberals, Wrigglesworth was elected the first president of the new Social and Liberal Democrats in 1988 and served a tumultuous two-year term as president, where he helped to guide the new party through a financial crisis, its disastrous showing in the 1989 European Parliamentary election and its change in name to the Liberal Democrats.Wrigglesworth was knighted in 1991 and, although he has been active in the business community in the North East since that time, he has retained his involvement with the Liberal Democrats.He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Northumbria in December 2011 and an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration by the University of Teesside in October 2012.