Born in Dulwich, Skinner began working for the Post Office, firstly delivering telegraphs, then as a postman, and as a sorter.
He became active in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), probably under the influence of his wife, Phillis Emerson, who also convinced him to become a vegetarian and free thinker.
The prison authorities refused to provide vegetarian food, so Skinner suffered greatly from hunger.
He stood as the Labour Party candidate for Hendon at the 1924 United Kingdom general election, and for Clapham in 1929, and also served as secretary of the ILP's London and Southern Counties division.
For demonstrating at a rocket base in Harrington, he was sentenced to two months in prison, spending his seventieth birthday there.