He joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1894, shortly after its formation, and agitated in opposition to the Second Boer War.
As a result, he lost his job, and instead became a full-time organiser for the ILP, initially in Accrington, then in Whitehaven, and from 1918 in Manchester, covering the important Lancashire District of party.
Although this was a two-member seat, the official Labour Party candidate refused to run a joint campaign, and while Abbott ultimately took 15,591 votes, this left him in last place.
[2] He supported the disaffiliation of the ILP from the Labour Party,[3] but in 1934 he resigned from the ILP, protesting about the involvement of the Revolutionary Policy Committee, the predominance of middle-class members of the National Administrative Council, and moves to reduce the autonomy of branches from the centre.
Abbott was elected as its general secretary,[4] but the party achieved little and was wound up shortly after his death in 1949.