Anne Marie Morris

Anne Marie Morris (born 5 July 1957)[1] is a British politician and former lawyer. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Newton Abbot since 2010. She was elected as a Conservative, though the party whip has twice been withdrawn from her, once from July to December 2017 and again from January to May 2022.

Anne Marie Morris
MP
Official portrait, 2020
Member of Parliament
for Newton Abbot
Assumed office
6 May 2010
Preceded byRichard Younger-Ross (Teignbridge)
Majority17,501 (33.3%)
Personal details
Born (1957-07-05) 5 July 1957
London, England
Political partyConservative
Alma materHertford College, Oxford
Websitewww.annemariemorris.co.uk

Early life and career

Morris was born in London on 5 July 1957.[2] She was privately educated at Bryanston School in Dorset and the University of Oxford, where she studied law.[3] After a career working as a corporate lawyer, she became a marketing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Ernst and Young.[4] 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 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.[9]

In 2013 she was one of 30 Conservative rebels whose votes helped defeat the government's plans for military action in Syria.[10] 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.[11]

In the 2015 general election, she increased her majority to 11,288 and again in the 2017 election to 17,160.[12][13]

Morris is interested in small businesses, and co-chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Micro Businesses until 2016.[14] 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'.[15] 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.[16] In Newton Abbot she has established Teignbridge Business Buddies, a scheme that offers support to small businesses.[17]

Morris supported the UK leaving the European Union prior to the 2016 referendum.[18]

On 15 November 2018 she submitted a letter of no confidence in Theresa May's leadership.[19]

In October 2020, Morris was one of five Conservative MPs who broke the whip to vote for a Labour opposition day motion to extend the provision of free school meals during school holidays until Easter 2021.[20]

Regarding the December 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, Morris said: "There is nothing new in this document – it's just a rehash of data that has been published before. No attempt has been made to model the impact on the economy in the way that they have modelled the impact the tiers will have on Covid infections. I cannot support the Government in [the 1 December] vote, and everyone I know who has read the document is saying the same."[21]

The Guardian reported in May 2022 that Morris had submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[22]

2017

In July 2017, Morris faced calls for the Conservative whip to be withdrawn from her after being recorded on a parliamentary panel using the 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.[23][24][25] Morris later stated that the comment was "totally unintentional" and gave an unreserved apology.[25] Prime Minister Theresa May had ordered the Chief Whip to suspend the party whip.[26] The term had been used previously in the House of Lords by Conservative peer Lord Dixon-Smith in 2008.[25][27]

This incident took place a few weeks after the 2017 general election campaign during which Morris distanced herself from a remark made by her partner and election agent, Roger Kendrick, at a hustings, in which he said 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 four votes.[28]

2022

In January 2022, it was reported by Politico that she had again lost the Conservative whip, for voting for an opposition day motion on a VAT cut for energy bills.[29] Morris said she was "disappointed", but "won't apologise for supporting measures that would help my hard-working constituents at a time when the cost of living is rising."[30] The motion was defeated by 319 votes to 229.[31] She said she had submitted a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson before losing the whip.[32] The party whip was restored on 12 May 2022.[33]

Personal life

Morris lives in Newton Abbot and London.[4] Her former partner was the financier Roger Kendrick,[2] who also formerly served as her election agent.[4] The couple were featured in an article in The Sunday Times in March 2013 on how high earners could limit their tax bills.[34]

References
  1. "Newton Abbot Academy Trust". Dellam Corporate Information. 1 August 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  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. "Anne Marie Morris". politics.co.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  4. "About Anne Marie". Anne Marie Morris. 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". BBC News. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  8. Prince, Rosa (11 July 2012). "PMQs: Anne Marie Morris has MPs in stitches with her high-pitched Commons outburst". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  9. "MPs expenses: 22 MPs get 'dual income' from London homes". BBC News. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  10. Eaton, George (30 August 2013). "MPs who voted against the Syria motion: the full list". New Statesman. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  11. "Anne Marie Supports Air Strikes". Anne Marie Morris. 29 September 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  12. Osborn, Matt; Franklin, Will; Clarke, Seán; Straumann, Ralph. "2015 UK general election results in full". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  13. "2017 General Election candidates in Devon". Devon Live. 11 May 2017. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  14. "House of Commons – Register of All-Party Groups as at 15 June 2012: Micro Businesses". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  15. "New report calls for better integration of entrepreneur skills at all levels of education". enterprise.ac.uk. Enterprise Education. 2014. Archived from the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  16. "Parliamentary career for Anne Marie Morris". UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  17. "Business buddy scheme launched by MP". Western Morning News. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  18. Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  19. "Factbox: Who has submitted letters of no confidence in PM May?". Reuters. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  20. Greaves, Paul (22 October 2020). "Rebel MP explains why she voted to extend free school meals". Devon Live. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  21. Rayner, Gordon; Fisher, Lucy; Yorke, Harry (30 November 2020). "Tories in revolt over Boris Johnson's Covid tiers". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  22. Clinton, Jane (28 May 2022). "Tory discontent with Boris Johnson spreads as MPs fear losing seats". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  23. Bennett, Owen (10 July 2017). "Tory MP Anne Marie Morris Recorded Saying Brexit No Deal Is A 'N***** In A Woodpile'". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  24. Casalicchio, Emilio (10 July 2017). "Tories urged to sack MP who said no-deal Brexit was 'nigger in the woodpile'". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  25. "MP Anne Marie Morris suspended for racist remark". BBC News. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  26. 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 Telegraph. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  27. Mason, Rowena (11 July 2017). "May orders Anne Marie Morris MP to be suspended after using N-word". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  28. "Anne Marie Morris: Tory MP has whip restored after racist remark". BBC News. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  29. Wickham, Alex (12 January 2022). "London Playbook: Scoop: Tory MP loses whip — High noon — Party Marty". Politico. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  30. Hughes, David (12 January 2022). "Tories remove whip from Anne Marie Morris over support for energy VAT cut motion". Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  31. "Tories remove whip from Anne Marie Morris over support for energy VAT cut motion". Yahoo News UK. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  32. Morris, Anne Marie (20 January 2022). "Why I submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister". DevonLive. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  33. "Anne Marie Morris - Parliamentary career". UK Parliament. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  34. Hussain, Ali (3 March 2013). "How high earners can cut tax by backing start ups". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
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