Woodwark first stood for Parliament as Liberal candidate for King’s Lynn at the 1922 general election. In a tight three-cornered contest he came third behind the sitting Conservative MP, Neville Jodrell who held the seat and the Labour candidate, R B Walker. At the 1923 general election however in an ever-closer race, Woodwark leapt to the top of the poll to take King’s Lynn by the narrow majority of 677 votes. However he could not hold on in the face of a national Conservative revival in 1924 and lost the seat back to the Tories. He did not stand for election to the House of Commons again.