 He was a checkweighman at the Hemsworth Colliery, Yorkshire, for 25 years.At the Barnsley by-election of 1897, Potts supported the Liberal Party candidate Joseph Walton.While chairing a Liberal election meeting during this by-election, Potts said in the presence of Walton that he would favour a labour party at a time when state payment of MPs, and of official election expenses would enable working men to be maintained in Parliament.