Career
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 Trades Union Congress messenger, delivering important messages to the Trade Unions 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. He was elected as Labour Company-operative Member of Parliament for Bilston in the 1955 general election.
The constituency was abolished in 1974, so in the February 1974 election, he stood successfully for Wolverhampton South East which covers a similar area. In 1983, he became the oldest sitting British Member of Parliament. Edwards stood down in 1987 and was succeeded by Dennis Turner.
The former Labour Party leader Michael Foot became the oldest sitting British Member of Parliament after Edwards" retirement.
Edwards died in June 1990, aged 85, three years after his retirement from parliament.