Robert Edwards (politician)

Robert Edwards (16 January 1905 – 4 June 1990), usually known as Bob Edwards, was a British trade unionist and an Independent Labour Party (ILP) and Labour Co-operative politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1955 to 1987.

Born in 1905, to docker parents, he was one of the youngest Labour councillors in Liverpool, becoming a councillor in 1927, aged 22. He also led an ILP Youth Delegation to the Soviet Union, where he met Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. During the General Strike in 1926 he was a TUC messenger, delivering important messages to the Trades Union Congress from individual unions.

In the Spanish Civil War, he led the ILP Contingent in the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) on the Aragon front. They left Spain in May 1937.

Edwards was a leading member of the ILP after it split from the Labour in the 1930 and 1940s, serving as the party's Chairman from 1943 to 1948.

Between 1947 and 1971, he was the General Secretary of the Chemical Workers' Union, and was also a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

As an ILP candidate, Edwards unsuccessfully contested Chorley at the 1935 general election, and Stretford at a by-election in 1939 and the Newport by-election in 1945 (where he won 45.5% of the votes).

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