 After unsuccessfully contesting Stockport South in 1955 United Kingdom general election, Roberts was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Inner London constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington aged 67, according to his obituary writer Frank Allaun the oldest new MP since the Second World War, (although John McQuade who also took his only Westminster seat at the same election was eight months older than Roberts).He served from the 1979 general election until the 1987 general election, when he was deselected in favour of Diane Abbott who would go on to become the first-ever Black British female MP.He married Joyce Longley in 1953, and had a son and two daughters.