Adams's political interest began when he was still a law student in England. He became a member of the
Liberal Party at Oxford, finding his views aligned best with those of the
Asquithian liberals, in support of private enterprise and trade. Under the Liberal ideals of the era, support of trade union action, representational government and reform of the land ownership and taxation system were towards the overall goal of fostering free trade. As the British liberals that shaped him rejected the socialism of the British Labour Party, so too did Adams oppose the labour-focused efforts of the Democratic League of
Charles Duncan O'Neal and
Clennell Wickham on his return to Barbados in 1925. He attacked their strike efforts as editor of the Agricultural Reporter, a planter paper that had opposed workers' rights since its nineteenth century inception. With a growing reputation and popularity among the conservative establishment, Adams's entry into the House of Assembly in 1934 was assured by his role in the deconstruction of the socialist League, including bankrupting one of the key journalistic voices in support of workers' rights. Nevertheless, Adams's fundamental belief in liberal policies meant that he tended to support pro-working class efforts once he was installed in the House, and continued to espouse many of O’Neale's causes after the man's passing in 1936. Adams therefore consolidated his position by subsuming the fragmented Labour movement he had shattered, and marrying them to his own liberal ideals. It is this face that embraced the workers' rebellions of 1937 and lead to the establishment of the
Barbados Labour Party in 1938. In further defiance of Adams, Strachan and fellow communist activist
Ferdinand Smith conducted a speaking tour of the Caribbean. Adams became the first Premier of Barbados in 1954 and additionally
Minister of Finance in the same year. Four years later he
became the
Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation, defeating
Ashford Sinanan by two votes. (Sinanan went on to serve as Leader of the Opposition of Trinidad's
Democratic Labour Party.) Adams served this role from 1958 to 1962; Barbados was one of the ten provinces of the West Indies Federation, an organisation doomed by nationalistic attitudes and by the fact that its members, as British colonies, held limited legislative power. Yet he retained his reputation for conservatism through his support of the
monarchy. His leaderships's failure to form unions such as the BWU and his rejection of attempts to speed up the push for Independence was used by his opponents as evidence that he was no longer in touch with the needs of his country.
Errol Walton Barrow, a fervent reformer, became the new people's advocate. Barrow had left the BLP and formed the
Democratic Labour Party (DLP) as the social democrat alternative to Adams's liberal government, one that cleaved more closely to Labour's disruptive traditions. As such, Barrow instituted many progressive social welfare focused on demolishing long-standing class barriers, including free education for all Barbadians, and the School Meals system, the latter being vehemently derided by Adams himself. By 1961, Barrow had replaced Adams as Premier and the DLP controlled the government. ==Personal life==