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Dan Norris
Member of Parliament for Wansdyke
In office 1 May 1997 – 12 April 2010
Preceded by	Jack Aspinwall
Succeeded by	Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset)
Personal details
Born	(1960-01-28) 28 January 1960 (age 64) London, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Sussex
Website	www.dannorris.org.uk

Dan Norris (born 28 January 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wansdyke from 1997 until 2010. He was also a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Early life

Norris was the son of June Norris, a Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate for Northavon in 1983 and 1992, and David Norris, a sales manager then social worker. Norris was educated at Chipping Sodbury Comprehensive School and the University of Sussex, where he read a Master's in Social Work (MSW). He is a former teacher and child protection officer having trained with the NSPCC.

Before parliament

Norris was a councillor for Brislington West on Bristol City Council from 1989 to 1992, as well as from 1995 to 1997, and Avon County Council from 1993 to 1996. He is a member of the GMB Union.

Parliamentary career

Norris first stood for parliament in the constituency of Northavon in 1987, losing against the Conservative incumbent, Sir John Cope. In 1992, he was the Labour candidate for Wansdyke, leapfrogging the Liberal Democrats to take Labour from third to second place against the Conservative incumbent, Jack Aspinwall.

He contested the Wansdyke seat once more in the election of 1997, and this time succeeded in taking a traditionally safe Conservative seat by 4,799 votes, overturning a majority of 11,770 votes. Whilst Norris went on to increase his majority to 5,613 in the election of 2001, the election of 2005 saw his lead over the Conservatives fall to 1,839. Due to changes made by the Boundary Commission for England, the Wansdyke constituency was abolished at the 2010 election. Norris stood instead for North East Somerset, but was defeated by Jacob Rees-Mogg (C).

During his time in Parliament, Norris was an assistant whip from 2001 to 2003. In May 2006 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain until June 2007, then PPS to Foreign Secretary David Miliband to January 2009. In the reshuffle of June 2009 Norris entered the Government as a minister for the first time, becoming Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

As a backbencher, prior to taking on a PPS role, Norris had the highest voting record of any MP, attending 97% of all votes, though due to being an assistant whip only spoke occasionally in the Commons.

Norris' voting records show that he is in favour of: crime reduction measures; a tougher line being taken against child sexual abuse; the smoking ban; the introduction of ID cards, rather than a border police force in the United Kingdom; introducing additional GP hours to allow patient access during evenings and at weekends, patient choice of hospital, and cutting NHS waiting list times; introducing foundation hospitals; student top up fees; anti terrorism laws and migration controls; the Iraq war; not having an investigation into the Iraq war; replacing the Trident nuclear deterrent; the hunting ban and animal welfare measures; and gay rights.

Norris was one of just 25 out of the 121 MPs who voted on Freedom of Information laws supporting its application to MPs' allowances at the Third Reading vote on 18 May 2007. Norris has a particular interest in child safety and regularly campaigns against child sexual abuse, having co written a free booklet on its prevention. He also co wrote, produced and distributed a booklet aimed at giving practical advice to children across the United Kingdom about dealing with bullying entitled Don't Bully Me.

Norris was on the speaker list for the New Labour pressure group Progress.

Later career

Following his defeat at the general election of 2010, Norris worked for former Foreign Secretary David Miliband in his ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Labour leadership. In May 2012, Norris was shortlisted to be the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of Bristol, but did not win the selection. As of 2016 he was Senior Operations Manager for the Russell Group of Universities.

Norris has been very critical of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party's handling of antisemitism, stating in an op-ed for the Bristol Post, "today’s Labour leadership seems to have become highly uncomfortable in opposing racism when it is directed at Jewish people."

Norris is an ambassador for the children's charity Kidscape. In 2004, Norris was appointed to the board of the Snowdon Trust, a charity that supports students with physical disabilities.

Bibliography

• Violence Against Social Workers: The Implications for Practice, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1989 (with Carol Kedward). ISBN 978-1-85302-041-4

References

1. ^ Roth, Andrew; Criddle, Byron (1998). "Dan NORRIS, WANSDYKE '97-" (PDF). Parliamentary Profiles: Four Volume Set. Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. ISBN 9780900582431. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
2. "NORRIS, Dan". Who's Who 2010 online edn. Oxford University Press. November 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
3. "Bristol City Council Election Results for 4 May 1995 - Brislington West". Bristol City Council. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
4. ^ White, Michael (28 December 2000). "Labour roots in a rural Tory setting". Special report: elections 2000. The Guardian. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
5. "Avon County Council Election Results 1973-1993" (PDF). The Elections Centre (Plymouth University). Retrieved 17 April 2020.
6. "GMB MP's". GMB Union. Archived from the original on 16 February 2007. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
7. ^ "Dan Norris". BBC News. 16 October 2002. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
8. "Dan Norris". TheyWorkForYou. mySociety. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
9. "Archive.org record of www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/dan_norris/wansdyke for June 2006". Archived from the original on 29 June 2006.
10. https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/dan_norris/wansdyke#votingrecord Archived 29 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
11. "Dan Norris's vote on the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill – Third Reading – 18 May 2007 at 13:46". The Public Whip. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
12. "Council's irresponsible and dangerous approach to bullying slammed by child campaigning West MP". Kidscape. 23 November 2005. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
13. "Dan Norris". Progress. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
14. ^ "Our Board - Dan Norris". Snowdon Trust. 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
15. Amanda Ramsay (25 May 2012). "Profile of Labour's candidates for the Bristol mayoralty: Dan Norris". Labour Uncut. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
16. Brown, David (10 August 2016). "Universities chief's free, five-star Singapore trip". The Times. London. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
17. Norris, Dan (13 November 2018). "My shock and horror at Labour's antisemitism - former Bristol MP". Bristol Post. Retrieved 22 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
18. "Kidscape Staff, Trustees, Patrons, Volunteers". Kidscape. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
19. "Management, patrons and ambassadors". Kidscape. Retrieved 14 December 2016.

External links

• Dan Norris official site
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dan Norris
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Dan Norris MP
• Voting record at the Public Whip

• 1960 births
• Living people
• Bath and North East Somerset
• Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• Labour Friends of Israel
• Councillors in South West England
• Alumni of the University of Sussex
• UK MPs 1997–2001
• UK MPs 2001–2005
• UK MPs 2005–2010
• Politics of Bath and North East Somerset
• National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people
• Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Northern Ireland Office
• Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign and Commonwealth Office