The family home was Addington in Buckinghamshire and when a vacancy occurred for the parliamentary constituency of North Buckinghamshire in 1889, he was chosen as the Conservative candidate.[4] He failed to hold the seat for the Conservatives, and was defeated by his Liberal opponent, Edmund Hope Verney by 208 votes. Two years later there was another by-election in the constituency, and he again stood in the Conservative interest. He was again defeated, with the new Liberal MP increasing the majority to 381 votes.[5]
In the meantime, Hubbard had moved to London, and in March 1892 he was elected an alderman on London County Council, as a member of the Conservative-backed Moderate Party.[6] He held the seat until 1898.[7]
In 1894 Hubbard was chosen to fight Plymouth at the next general election in 1895.[8] Later that year the Conservative MP for Brixton, George Osborne succeeded to his father's title as Duke of Leeds. Hubbard was the selected to contest the resulting by-election by the Brixton Conservative Association.[9] The by-election was held on 30 January 1896 and was elected as MP with a majority over his Radical opponent of 2,362 votes.[10] He retired from the Commons in March 1900, on the advice of his doctors.[11]