Sandys was the eldest son of Edwin Sandys , and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir James Rushout. He was educated at New College, Oxford, matriculating in 1711 aged 16. He left Oxford in 1715 without graduating, and embarked on a Grand Tour of Continental Europe.
Opposition
In 1718, at the age of 22, Sandys was elected MP for Worcester, as a Whig. He represented the seat for 25 years. Initially a supporter of Robert Walpole's government, in 1725 Sandys and his uncle Sir John Rushout went into opposition with William Pulteney. Sandys was seen as second-in-command to Pulteney, the leader of the Patriot Whigs. In February 1730 Sandys introduced the Pension Bill, to bar from sitting in the House of Commons anyone with any pensions or offices held in trust for them from the Crown. The bill passed through the House of Commons but was rejected by the House of Lords; he reintroduced the bill several times in subsequent sessions, with the same result. Sandys opposed the government's economic policy: in 1733 he opposed both the motion to take £500,000 from the sinking fund and the Excise Bill to tax tobacco and wine imports; in February 1736 he called attention to the increase of the national debt. On 13 February 1741, Sandys moved a motion to call upon King George II to dismiss Walpole. The Tories did not support the motion, which was defeated by 290 votes to 106; the Tory Jacobite William Shippen commented of Walpole and the opposition Whigs that "Robin and I are two honest men: he is for King George and I for King James, but those men in long cravats only desire places under either one or the other".
Chancellor of the Exchequer
This impression that senior opposition Whigs were motivated by self-advancement rather than by opposition to the government gained substance when Walpole fell in February 1742. Pulteney brokered a deal with the Court, without consulting opposition parties. The new ministry led by Lord Wilmington was a continuation of Walpole's ministry with few personnel changes, but with Sandys appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir John Rushout and Phillips Gybbon appointed Lords of the Treasury. Pulteney and Sandys supported the appointment of a secret committee to investigate Walpole's conduct in office; Sandys was elected a member of the committee. They opposed the repeal of the Septennial Act 1716, and objected to the rejection by the Lords of the Indemnification Bill to recompense witnesses against Walpole. In December 1742 Sandys opposed a Place Bill, although he had proposed several such bills when in opposition. Wilmington died in July 1743, succeeded as First Lord of the Treasury by Henry Pelham. On 12 December 1743, Pelham took the Chancellorship himself.
