Career
He was first elected to the House of Commons at the general election in November 1922 for the Central division of Portsmouth. The following year, at the general election in December 1923, the rift in the Liberal Party had been healed, and Privett lost the seat to Sir Thomas Bramsdon, the Liberal who he had beaten the previous year. After his defeat, Privett stood for Parliament on only one further occasion, when he was unsuccessful as an "Independent Conservative" candidate in the Southern division of Portsmouth at the 1929 general election.