He was elected to the House of Representatives, but Prime Minister James Scullin refused him admission to the ALP caucus due to his support for Jack Lang.

Ward and six other "Lang Labor" MPs formed a separate parliamentary party and eventually brought down Scullin's government.

However, his successor John Clasby died only a month later and he re-entered parliament at the ensuing by-election, and held the seat until his death.

He had an uneasy relationship with Curtin, and his claims about the "Brisbane Line" led to a royal commission which found they were unsubstantiated.

He was the fourth child and oldest son born to Mary Ann (née Maher) and Edward James Ward; his father worked for the Sydney tramways.

[3] He left school at the age of 14 and worked variously as a fruit-picker, printer's devil, tarpaulin-maker, and as a clerk at a hardware store.

He refused to participate in some of his required duties and was detained at a military disciplinary camp at Middle Head for a week.

[13] By the late 1920s Ward was secretary of the ALP electorate council for the federal seat of West Sydney, with Jack Beasley as president.

[16] During the Great Depression he was an advocate for the unemployed, establishing a relief committee and secured donations of fresh fruit and vegetables from the Sydney Markets.

Eight months later, Ward and the other Lang Labor members voted with the opposition on a no-confidence motion to bring down the Scullin government.

[18] Following the death of Curtin in 1945, Ward nominated for leadership of the Labor Party, which would have resulted in him becoming Prime Minister, but lost to Ben Chifley.

He was famous for sardonically "welcoming" Menzies back to Australia after his many three-month absences in England at the beginning of each parliamentary year.

Ward was the subject of a parliamentary outburst by Menzies (who had apparently drunk too much) during a discussion of the Communist Party Dissolution Bill.

Ward often criticised Menzies and in 1944, had called him "a posturing individual with the scowl of a Mussolini, the bombast of a Hitler and the physical proportions of a Göring".

[1] Following the 1946 election, Ward nominated for Deputy Leader of the Labor Party but was beaten by Herbert Vere Evatt.

Setting a trend, he was again nominated for deputy leader in 1951, coming third behind Arthur Calwell and the comparatively little-known Percy Clarey; and in 1960, when he lost narrowly to future Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, despite getting the support of newly elected leader Arthur Calwell who disliked Whitlam.

However, with the end of his leadership aspirations and the onset of advanced atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and heart disease, Ward was losing political importance although he was still seen as an elder statesman of the Labor Party.

[1] Arthur Calwell eulogised Ward as an irrepressible fighter and unrelenting hater whilst Curtin had dismissed him as a "bloody ratbag".