Wilson was elected to the first session of the newly re-established Scottish Parliament, as one of five SNP MSPs to represent Central Scotland through the Additional Members System. Whilst an MSP he served variously in the Shadow Cabinet as the SNP Finance, Economy, Lifelong Learning and Transport Spokesperson. He was widely viewed by commentators as a rising star of the SNP, an iconoclast and pro-market economist he made much headway selling the idea of fiscal autonomy now called 'Devo-Max' to the mainstream business, media and society. It was adopted by The Scotsman, a unionist newspaper and later went on to win support across the political spectrum. He gave a controversial lecture at the party conference in 1999 promoting the idea Britishness could, should, and would survive independence. He later wrote a column for the Sunday Mail calling on Scots to support the English football team in the 2002 world cup finals. In policy he is credited with much of the work on the SNP's alternative to the private finance initiative, now The Scottish Futures Trust. He also promoted the case for a Scottish Sovereign wealth fund using the proceeds of North Sea Oil. In 2003 he came within 520 votes of unseating Cathie Craigie in the first past the post contest for the Cumbernauld and Kilsyth seat, but when only three SNP MSPs were returned from Central Scotland he lost his place as an MSP.
After parliament
Following political service Wilson joined RBS Group working in a variety of roles including Deputy Chief Economist and since the 2008 crisis as Head of Group Communications. He joined WPP in August 2012 working in a client facing role. He delivered the Donaldson Lecture at the 2013 SNP conference. In 2014 he launched a new strategic communications consultancy Charlotte Street Partners based in Edinburgh and London. Along with co-founder Malcolm Robertson, he topped a list of "names to watch" published by The Scotsman in 2014. He was a Trustee of the John Smith Memorial Trust and is a Trustee of The John Smith Centre for Public Service at the University of Glasgow. He is a former member of the Governing Board of the Scottish Crop Research Institute and between 2010 - 2015 he was a Director of Motherwell Football Club. He is a Director and Trustee of Sistema Scotland, a social transformation charity engaging children through orchestral music, and a member of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the David Hume Institute. He is a former columnist in Scotland on Sunday and writes occasional opinion pieces for other newspapers including The Scotsman, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Record and The National. In September 2016, he was appointed to chair the Sustainable Growth Commission reporting to the First Minister of Scotland. In October 2017, he was also appointed to the Independent Commission on Referendums at University College London's Constitution Unit. In March 2020, he was re-appointed to the governing board of Motherwell Football Club as a Director.
Personal life
He has three children from his first marriage with whom he lives in Edinburgh.
