Anne Marie Morris

Anne Marie Morris
MP
Official Parliamentary portrait, June 2017
Member of Parliament
for Newton Abbot
Assumed office
6 May 2010
Preceded by Constituency established
Majority 17,160 (33.3%)
Personal details
Born (1957-07-05) 5 July 1957
London, England
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Hertford College, Oxford
Website www.annemariemorris.co.uk

Anne Marie Morris (born 5 July 1957)[1] is a British Conservative Party politician and former lawyer who was elected at the 2010 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Newton Abbot constituency. She was re-elected in 2015 and 2017 in the seat, but was briefly suspended by the Conservative Party in 2017 for racist comments.

Early life and career

Morris was born in London on 5 July 1957.[2] After a career working as a corporate lawyer, she became a marketing director for PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) and Ernst and Young.[3] She was elected as a councillor on West Sussex County Council for the division of Cuckfield & Lucastes in 2005 and went on to chair the council's Health Scrutiny Committee.[4][5]

Parliamentary career

Following unsuccessful attempts to be selected as the Conservative candidate for the parliamentary seats of Lewes and Arundel and South Downs, in December 2006 Morris was selected by the local Conservative association to contest the Newton Abbot constituency.[6] In March 2007, Morris resigned as a councillor in West Sussex.

In the 2010 general election Morris was elected to the seat of Newton Abbot on a 5% swing from the Liberal Democrats. In a close contest, she defeated the incumbent, Richard Younger-Ross, who had been MP for the former constituency of Teignbridge, by 523 votes.[7]

Morris attracted attention during Prime Minister's Questions in July 2012 as she shouted a long question on technical colleges in Devon over a noisy and increasingly amused Commons chamber, whilst waving a left arm held in a sling. Video of her "high-pitched outburst" was widely circulated on social media.[8] Morris said she cared about the issue raised and would "always speak passionately about issues in my constituency."[8]

In 2013 she was one of 30 Conservative rebels whose votes helped defeat the government's plans for military action in Syria.[9] She later said she made the decision because the military action plans "felt ill-thought through and smacked of regime change", but supported plans for air strikes against ISIL.[10]

In the 2015 general election, she increased her majority to 11,288 and again in the 2017 election to 17,160.[11][12]

Morris is interested in small businesses, and co-chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Micro Businesses until 2016.[13] In 2014 she led the UK's first ever policy review to consider entrepreneurial education for all levels of education, 'An Education System for an Entrepreneur'.[14] She served for three years on the Work and Pensions Committee until March 2015. She served for 6 months on the Public Accounts Committee until May 2017, before rejoining the committee in February 2018.[15] In Newton Abbot she has established Teignbridge Business Buddies, a scheme that offers support to small businesses.[16]

Morris supported the UK leaving the European Union prior to the 2016 referendum.[17]

After she was compared unfavourably with her neighbouring MP Sarah Wollaston for failing to respond to messages by WriteToThem.com in November 2016, where she was ranked 627 out of 641 MPs, Morris criticised the methodology of the survey and stated: "Along with all MPs I do my level best to respond to all enquiries as soon as possible but in a number of different ways."[18]

Controversy

In 2012, Morris was featured in an investigation by the BBC into MPs who owned property in London but claimed expenses for renting a separate property in the city. She was listed as one of 22 MPs who were undertaking the practice, which was legal, following a cap on the amount MPs could claim for mortgage costs.[19]

In January 2016, Morris was one of 72 MPs who voted down an amendment in Parliament on rental homes being “fit for human habitation” who were themselves landlords who derived an income from a property.[20]

In July 2017, Morris faced calls for the Conservative whip to be withdrawn from her after being recorded on a parliamentary panel using the racist idiom "nigger in the woodpile" to describe the threat of leaving the EU without a deal, at the launch of a report into the future for the UK's financial sector after Brexit.[21][22][23] Morris later stated that the comment was "totally unintentional" and gave her unreserved apology.[23] The suspension came after Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the Chief Whip to suspend the party whip after Morris' comments were published on the HuffPost website.[24] The term had been used previously in the House of Lords by Conservative peer Lord Dixon-Smith in 2008.[23][25]

During the 2017 general election campaign a few weeks earlier, Morris had distanced herself from an alleged "racist remark" made by her partner and election agent, Roger Kendrick, at a hustings, in which he claimed problems in the British education system were “due entirely to non-British born immigrants and their high birth rates".[26]

The whip was restored to Morris on 12 December 2017, one day before a crucial vote on the Brexit process. Although Morris voted with the Conservative Government, the Government was defeated by 4 votes.[27]

Personal life

Morris lives in Newton Abbot and London.[28] Her partner is the financier Roger Kendrick,[2] who also serves as her Election Agent. The couple were featured in an article in The Sunday Times in March 2013 on how high earners could limit their tax bills.[29] [30]

References

  1. ↑ "Newton Abbot Academy Trust". Dellam Corporate Information. 1 August 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Morris, Anne Marie, (born 1957), MP for Newton Abbot, since 2010". Who's Who. 1. 2010. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U251230.
  3. ↑ "Personal website". MP. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. ↑ Kendrick, Roger. "About Anne Marie". Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  5. ↑ "Committee examines health changes". BBC News. 12 July 2006. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Anne-Marie Morris adopted for Newton Abbot". conservativehome.blogs.com. 2 December 2006. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  7. ↑ "BBC: Election Results 2010".
  8. 1 2 Prince, Rosa (11 July 2012). "PMQs: Anne Marie Morris has MPs in stitches with her high-pitched Commons outburst". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "MPs who voted against the Syria motion: the full list". New Statesman. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Ann Marie Supports Air Strikes". Anne Marie Morris. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Osborn, Matt; Franklin, Will; Clarke, Seán; Straumann, Ralph. "2015 UK general election results in full". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  12. ↑ "2017 General Election candidates in Devon". Devon Live. 11 May 2017.
  13. ↑ "House of Commons – Register of All-Party Groups as at 15 June 2012: Micro Businesses". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  14. ↑ "New report calls for better integration of entrepreneur skills at all levels of education". enterprise.ac.uk. Enterprise Education. 2014.
  15. ↑ "Parliament Profile". GOV.UK. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  16. ↑ "Business buddy scheme launched by MP". Western Morning News. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  17. ↑ Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  18. ↑ "MP 'among worst' for responding to messages". Mid Devon Advertiser. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  19. ↑ Staff writer (19 October 2012). "MPs expenses: 22 MPs get 'dual income' from London homes". BBC News. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  20. ↑ "Tories vote down law requiring landlords make their homes fit for human habitation". Independent. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  21. ↑ Bennett, Owen (10 July 2017). "Tory MP Anne Marie Morris Recorded Saying Brexit No Deal Is A 'N***** In A Woodpile'". HuffPost. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  22. ↑ PoliticsHome.com (10 July 2017). "Tories urged to sack MP who said no-deal Brexit was 'nigger in the woodpile'".
  23. 1 2 3 Staff writer (10 July 2017). "MP Anne Marie Morris suspended for racist remark". BBC News. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  24. ↑ Hope, Christopher (10 July 2017). "Theresa May's majority is reduced further after she suspends MP for using phrase 'n-r in the woodpile'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  25. ↑ Mason, Rowena (11 July 2017). "May orders Anne Marie Morris MP to be suspended after using N-word". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  26. ↑ Glaze, Ben (11 July 2017). "Tory MP Anne Marie Morris suspended and facing calls to quit after n-word shame". Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Staff writer (12 December 2017). "Anne Marie Morris: Tory MP has whip restored after racist remark". BBC News. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  28. ↑ "Personal website". MP. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  29. ↑ "How did your MP vote on the successful Brexit amendment?". The Guardian. 3 March 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  30. ↑ "How did your MP Vote on the Successful Brexit Amendment". The Sunday Times. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Richard Younger-Ross
as MP for Teignbridge		 Member of Parliament for Newton Abbot
2010–present		 Incumbent
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