Morris served as Member of Parliament for Manchester Wythenshawe from 1964 until 1997, having previously unsuccessfully fought the, then, safe Conservative seat of Liverpool Garston in 1951 and the Wythenshawe seat in 1959.[1] He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Fred Peart, the Agriculture Minister. Morris campaigned against British entry to the Common Market and in May 1967 Prime Minister Harold Wilson sacked him, and six others, for abstaining in a Commons vote on the issue. Fred Peart did not appoint a replacement and Morris continued to work for him, albeit unofficially. In 1968, Peart became Leader of the Commons and reappointed Morris as his Parliamentary Private Secretary.[2]
In 1970 Morris successfully introduced the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, which was the first in the world to recognise and give rights to people with disabilities.[3][4] In 1974 he became the first Minister for the Disabled anywhere in the world.[5][6] In 1991 he introduced a Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill and he led campaigns on Gulf War Syndrome.[1]
He was created a life peer as Lord Morris of Manchester, of Manchester in the County of Greater Manchester, in 1997.[7] He was a life member of the GMB Union, the general trade union of the United Kingdom.[8] He served as President of the 1995 Co-operative Congress.[9] He was president of the Haemophilia Society from 1999 to 2012.[10][11]
Background
Morris (one of the eight children of George Henry Morris and his wife Jessie Murphy) was raised in poor circumstances in Ancoats, Manchester.[5]
In 1935, the family left Ancoats and moved to a new housing estate in Newton Heath.[7] He was educated at Brookdale Park School Newton Heath along with Harold Evans, who, as editor of The Sunday Times,[7] wrote a leader saying that: "As time ticked away to the 1970 general election, Alf Morris's Bill was the only piece of legislation worth saving." He received evening school tuition. He worked from the age of 14 as a clerk in the local Wilson's Brewery.
Morris, whose father lost an eye and a leg and was gassed while serving in the First World War, and then suffered a long decline in health and eventual death arising from his injuries, became a campaigner on behalf of those with disabilities.[7] After his father's death, Morris's mother was not entitled to a war widow's pension.[5] Forty years later, Morris himself put the matter right by changing the law affecting armed forces pensions when he became the UK and the World's first Minister for the Disabled.
Morris worked as a Manchester schoolteacher[7] and university extension lecturer in social history (1954–1956) and as an Industrial relations officer to the Electrical Supply Industry (1956–1964).
Family
He married Irene Jones in 1950.[12] They had two sons and two daughters.[2]
His brother Charles Morris and his niece Estelle Morris have also served as Labour MPs; Estelle also served as a peer alongside him from 2005.[7]
Lord Morris died in hospital on Sunday 12 August 2012 after a short illness, aged 84.[13] He was survived by his wife and children.[14]
A koala sejant erect guardant Gules gorged with a plain collar attached thereto a chain reflexed over the back Or.
Escutcheon
Gules on a pile reversed throughout Argent a pile reversed throughout Gules thereon three bees volant in pale Or.
Supporters
On either side a kiwi Argent legged and gorged with a plain collar Or and holding in the beak also Or a rose Gules barbed seeded slipped and leaved Or.[20]
Motto
Humanity
Badge
A Cockatoo wings elevated and addorsed Azure beaked legged crested and within a circle of ten Mullets Or
Publications
The Growth of Parliamentary Scrutiny by Committee (Oxford, Pergamon P., 1970).[15]
Needs before Means: an exposition of the underlying purposes of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, 1970 (Manchester, Co-operative Union, 1971).[15]
No Feet to Drag: report on the disabled (London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972).[15]
Alf Morris: People's Parliamentarian – Scenes from the Life of Lord Morris of Manchester (London, National Information Forum, 2007).[21]
^"Obituary: The Rt Hon Lord Morris of Manchester"(PDF). www.scienceinparliament.org.uk. Vol 69 No 4. Science in Parliament. Autumn 2012. p. 24. Retrieved 26 May 2020. He was a life member of the GMB union and served as President of the 1995 Co–Operative Congress.
^"Lord Morris - former President - The Haemophilia Society". The Haemophilia Society. 20 September 2020. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2024. Lord Morris (President from 1999-2012). The late Lord Morris of Manchester was president of the Haemophilia Society until he passed away, aged 84, in August 2012.
^Meikle, James (14 August 2012). "Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester dies, aged 84". The Guardian. ISSN0261-3077. Retrieved 14 November 2024. Morris, who was president of the Haemophilia Society, fought hard to make successive governments help and compensate thousands of haemophiliacs who developed HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products, many imported from the US, in the 1970s and 80s.
^Kinrade, Derek (September 2006). Alf Morris: People's Parliamentarian – Scenes from the Life of Lord Morris of Manchester. National Information Forum. ISBN978-09557515-0-9.
