He was elected to the House of Commons for Scarborough in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, and served under H. H. Asquith as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1915 to 1916.
In 1906, he was selected to represent Scarborough in the House of Commons, where he remained until 1918, and worked under H. H. Asquith as a junior government official responsible for financial matters from 1915 to 1916.