Tom Levitt - Political Career

Political Career

Levitt was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election after 14 years service at all levels of local government, including Derbyshire County Council. He was for a year a vice chair of Education. He was also a member of the management committee of High Peak Citizens Advice Bureau. As one of the few MPs with a qualification in British Sign Language, Levitt was an elected Trustee of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) from 1998 to 2003. He chaired the Community Development Foundation from 2004 to 2010.

From 1997 to 2003 Levitt was on the Standards & Privileges Committee, responsible for monitoring standards of MPs’ professional conduct. In 2004 he sat on the Scrutiny Committee for the Draft Disability Bill.

Following his election he held various junior positions. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Barbara Roche MP (1999–2003), first in the Home Office and then in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Following this he was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, from 2003–2007. He was a member of the Work and Pensions Committee from 2007 and assistant to the Regional Minister for the East Midlands.

Levitt is known to be in favour of the Longdendale Bypass, which would run through the north of his former constituency. In November 2009 Levitt told the Labour Party that he would not be a candidate at the 2010 general election.

Levitt is a patron of the charity READ International.