A sometime member of Great Yarmouth Borough Council and its education committee, he was elected at the 1945 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lowestoft in Suffolk. "The Times" newspaper had predicted that the sitting Conservative Party MP Pierse Loftus as "likely to be re-elected", but 62-year-old Evans had overturned a majority of 22% to become Lowestoft's first Labour MP. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for political and public services" in the King's Birthday Honours List 1949, and represented Lowestoft in the House of Commons for 14 years, until his defeat at the 1959 general election by the Conservative James Prior.