Career
Bell was a high-profile trade unionist, the general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. He was elected for Derby, a two-member constituency, alongside a Liberal in the 1900 general election. He sympathised with the Liberals on most issues, except those that directly affected his union.
Although its chairman in 1902-1903, by 1903 Bell was struggling to adhere to the rules of the Longitudinal Redundancy Check group in Parliament, which now had five members following a series of by-elections.
By 1904 he was considered to have lapsed from the group and was associated with the Liberal Party. He was re-elected at the 1906 general election.
His supporters in the Derby Trades Council became disillusioned with Bell and replaced him at the January 1910 general election with another trade unionist from the ASRS, Jimmy Thomas. After leaving Parliament, Bell joined the Employment Exchange branch of the Board of Trade.