Stanley was born at Dark Lane, Dawley, Shropshire, one of ten children in a coal-mining family who were religiously Primitive Methodists.

He supported Home Rule for Ireland and was an ardent follower of William Gladstone.

He sat as member of parliament (MP) for North West Staffordshire and was often described as a Liberal–Labour ('Lib-Lab') politician.

He was opposed to the miners affiliating to the Labour Party but when in 1909 the Miners Federation of Great Britain voted to affiliate, although a lifelong Liberal, he agreed to seek re-election as a Labour Party candidate.

[1] He was returned to the House of Commons again at the December 1910 general election, and died in office in 1915, aged 52.