In 1933 Anderton was elected to the Auckland City Council on a Labour Party ticket.[2] He was re-elected in both 1935 and 1938 but was defeated in 1941. In 1944 he was Labour's candidate for Mayor of Auckland City, but was defeated by John Allum in an election which saw all Labour candidates defeated.[3]
In 1947 Anderton was one of three Labour MPs who supported Frank Langstone's contentious proposal that the government make the state-owned Bank of New Zealand the sole legal issuer of bank credit over loans and overdrafts in an attempt to secure state control over the means of exchange. The proposal was rejected as too radical however.[6]
Anderton was an agitator against the leadership of Walter Nash during Labour's spell in opposition in the 1950s. He was one of the main instigators of the challenge to Nash in June 1954, which was unsuccessful. As a result, Anderton together with Phil Connolly and Arnold Nordmeyer were called before Labour's National Executive and given warnings about the threat of divisiveness to the party.[8]
After Labour won the 1957 election Anderton was nominated as a candidate for the position of Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, but lost the caucus ballot to Christchurch mayor Robert Macfarlane. He was then nominated to stand for a seat in cabinet in the Second Labour Government. In the third ballot for the final seat he was tied with Mount Albert MP Warren Freer. Freer cast his own vote in the next ballot for the 66 year old Anderton out of gratitude as he had helped Freer into politics years earlier.[9]
