Roberts stood in 1918 as a Coalition Labour candidate, opposed by the official Labour Party candidate. After leaving office in 1920, Roberts returned as a director to the firm he had left as works manager upon entering Parliament in 1906. He sat on the back-benches and as a Lloyd George Liberal retained his seat in the 1922 election but lost it as a Conservative in 1923. Roberts spent the rest of his life in the sugar beet industry.