Party In 1919, Lees-Smith joined the Labour Party. He was picked as Labour candidate for Keighley and won the seat in the 1922 general election, profiting from a divided opposition. He was a noted speaker on banking and on reform of the House of Lords, about which he wrote several books including Second Chambers in Theory and Practice (1923). Unfortunately for Lees-Smith, the Conservatives did not stand a candidate in the 1923 general election and he was defeated by the Liberal candidate. That defeat prevented him from being appointed as a Minister in the first Labour government. Ministerial office The collapse of the Liberal Party in the 1924 general election meant that Lees-Smith won his seat back, and he was swiftly appointed to a frontbench role. When Labour returned to office in 1929, he was made Postmaster-General. In that role, he defended the nationalised Post Office and tried to smarten up Post Office counters. In a reshuffle in March 1931, he was promoted to President of the Board of Education and sworn of the Privy Council. In that capacity, in June he gave the opening address at the Second International Congress of the History of Science. He had only a brief time in office before the government fell, and Lees-Smith refused to follow Ramsay MacDonald into the National Government. Defeated again in 1931, Lees-Smith again won his seat back in 1935. He served on the front bench but was not invited by Winston Churchill to join the Coalition government in 1940. As one of the most senior Labour figures not in office, the responsibilities of running the party were given to him. In his partisan role he strongly supported Churchill's conduct as war leader even if the war was not always running in the Allies' favour. References Obituary, The Times, 19 December 1941 External links 1878 births 1941 deaths Academics of the London School of Economics Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford British Secretaries of State for Education Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Aldenham School UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1935–1945 United Kingdom Postmasters General British people in colonial India