However, politics was Edge's main interest, and he was active in support of the Liberal Party in Lancashire, with a reputation as a good platform speaker, before getting into Parliament.
[3] At that time he was styled Captain Edge since he held a staff appointment in the War Office and his professional background was described to the electorate as a Bolton manufacturer.
[4] Edge was returned unopposed again in the 1918 general election as was the Labour candidate and the other sitting MP, Robert Tootill.
[5] From 1919 to 1922, Edge was a Joint Lord of the Treasury with his main role being to act as liaison between the Coalition government and the Labour Party.
The Conservative votes no longer transferred, and Labour and the independent Liberal party, which had reunited with many former coalitionists, were making advances.
[citation needed] As is perhaps to be expected from a supporter of the wartime coalition, Edge was politically close to David Lloyd George.
His victory there was part of a pattern of Liberal success begun in 1926 after the General Strike, and Lloyd George's taking over the leadership of the party from Asquith had changed the political scene.
Edge was one of the group of 22 Liberals MPs who followed Sir John Simon in declaring themselves a body to give firm support to the prime minister as the head of a National Government and for the purpose of fighting the General Election on 5 October 1931[17] The Liberal Nationals were closely associated with the Conservatives.