A Member of Parliament for the Liberal (later United) Party, Forbes succeeded the Prime Minister, J. G. Ward, in 1930. He attempted to meet the Depression by balancing the budget and paying “the dole” only to men who worked on labour-intensive public works schemes. In 1931 Forbes, in coalition with the more dynamic J. G. Coates, won the election on a policy of retrenchment, but in 1935 was swept out of office by Labour with its policy of economic expansion.