After unsuccessfully contesting Stroud in the 1987 general election and High Peak in 1992, Levitt was first elected to the House of Commons for the latter seat at the 1997 general election. He had 14 years service at all levels of local government, including Derbyshire County Council, where 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. Levitt was the first MP to use BSL in the House of Commons. He chaired the Community Development Foundation from 2004 to 2010.