 After the war, he found work at the Campbell Tile Factory in Stoke on Trent, and joined the National Society of Pottery Workers (NSPW).Sillitoe was a supporter of the Labour Party, and won election to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, ultimately serving for 36 years.He became a leading proponent for safer and cleaner working conditions in the pottery industry, and in 1966 he won election as assistant general secretary of the NSPW.