John Edwards (Labour politician)

Lewis John Edwards OBE (27 May 1904 – 23 November 1959) was a British university lecturer, trade union leader and Labour Party politician who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and was President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

After working for a bank, he studied for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, but decided his vocation lay outside the church.

He carried through Parliament the National Assistance Act 1948, which abolished the remaining parts of the Poor Law, an achievement of which he was particularly proud.

In the reshuffle caused by the resignation of Sir Stafford Cripps as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and held the post until the government lost the election of 1951.

In opposition he became Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, and a member of the British parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe from 1955, where he was elected in 1957 as vice-president and in April 1959 as President of the Consultative Assembly.