He was elected at the 1865 general election as a member of parliament (MP) for the borough of Thetford in Norfolk,[2] having unsuccessfully contested the seat at a by-election in April 1863.
[2] The borough was disenfranchised at the 1868 general election, and Harvey did not stand for Parliament again.
[2] The latter year he was created a Baronet, of Crown Point in the parish of Trowse in the County of Norfolk.
[3] Harvey married Lady Henrietta Augusta Lambart, daughter of George Frederick Augustus Lambart, Viscount Kilcoursie, in 1845.
He shot himself in July 1870, aged 53, after the collapse of the Crown Bank, and is buried in a large mausoleum in the graveyard at Kirby Bedon, Norfolk.