Alfred Edwards (23 March 1888 – 17 June 1958) was a British politician who served for fifteen years as a Member of Parliament (MP). His origins were as a company director in the foundry industry in Middlesbrough, which led him into conflict with the Labour Party when it proposed to nationalise the iron and steel industries; profoundly unable to support the party, he crossed the floor and became an active Conservative Party supporter.
Family and business
Edwards' father Thomas was from Middlesbrough and he was brought up in the town. He was only educated to elementary school level, leaving to work as a labourer in the Diamond grit works foundry. His obituary in The Times said that "by ability and sheer hard work he rose to become a director of an old-established local ironworks", this being Messrs. Harrison Bros. (England) Ltd. As a director, he had time to pursue other business interests in the town, and also farmed in Guisborough. He was also a frequent visitor to the United States on lecture tours.
Middlesbrough politics
In 1931 Edwards joined the Labour Party, and the next year he was elected to Middlesbrough Town Council. He was chosen as the party's candidate for Middlesbrough East, and in the 1935 general election he fought a tense three-way contest against the sitting Liberal Party Member and a Conservative Party challenger. In the event the sitting Member's vote collapsed, and Edwards was elected with a tiny majority of 67 over the Conservative candidate.
Parliament
Edwards began his Parliamentary career by moving a motion calling for the location of industry to be planned, in which he called for an area of 40 miles around London to be closed to new industry. He was concerned about a government proposal to help the iron and steel industry in Jarrow, arguing that it would become a competitor to his own constituency. In April 1937 he opposed the Conservative government's proposal for assistance to 'special areas', complaining that it had the deliberate intention of depriving Middlesbrough of the advantages other areas were to have. He made a failed attempt to get Middlesbrough included during the passage of the Bill, in which he was joined by the Middlesbrough West MP Frank Kingsley Griffith.
In 1937 he took up the issue of producing oil from coal, and claimed that the Falmouth Committee looking into the question had deliberately restricted its remit and sent an insulting letter to a company which might have helped it. Early in 1939 he protested against criticism of the police voiced in Parliament by Communist Party of Great Britain MP Willie Gallacher.
Second World War
Edwards greeted the threat of war with concern that the British Empire had supplied raw materials to enable Germany, Italy and Japan build up vast armaments. He called for the United Kingdom and United States to join together to deny raw material to aggressive nations. When conscription was announced, Edwards pressed the Prime Minister to commit to conscription of wealth as well as man-power. He complained that "two gentlemen who are dictators in certain European countries" had a monopoly of the British press.
During the Second World War Edwards kept up pressure on the Government to assist industry. In 1941 he proposed that all import duties be abolished, and in December the same year he made a speech deploring the low rate of production placing the blame on the Treasury's "throttling hands". At the time when Sir Oswald Mosley was released from detention due to ill health, Edwards put down a question to ask how long it would take for him to get better before his return to prison. He called for the war-time coalition government to be broken up in January 1944, so that the country could benefit from "organized opposition". The issue of housing rebuilding concerned him, and in September 1944 he announced a scheme for a garden city to be built on the outskirts of Guisborough.
Excess profits tax
Re-elected in the 1945 general election with a majority of 8,075, Edwards raised the plight of some new Members of Parliament who were unable to find anywhere to stay in London. Edwards had been a critic of the Excess Profits Tax during the war, and called for its abolition after the end of the war, a campaign he continued despite Government resistance.