Long active in the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB), Edwards was elected to increasingly important posts in the union. In 1929, he was finally elected to Parliament, as the Labour MP for Morpeth, succeeding Smillie, but lost his seat at the 1931 election. Elected as vice-president of the MFGB in 1929, he became president in 1931 and secretary in 1932. He also served in various posts at the Miners' International Federation.
Edwards supported the MFGB's reconstitution as the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and became the NUM's first secretary in 1945, but stepped down the following year to serve on the National Coal Board, keeping this post until 1953.
References
^The Colliery Guardian and Journal of the Coal and Iron Trades (1931), Volume 143, p. 394.