Leavey won at the 1955 general election. He was a strong supporter of the government over the Suez Crisis and attacked nearby Labour MPs for supporting Gamal Abdel Nasser, being rewarded with appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Walter Monckton for one year from 1956 and later to Derick Heathcoat Amory in 1959; however, his loyalty did not stretch to accepting what he saw as government indifference to the local cotton industry. When his pressure resulted in the passing of the Cotton Industry Act 1959, it was felt to have aided his campaign locally; despite it, in 1962, he was one of five Conservative MPs to support a Labour motion of censure on the subject.