Dan Norris

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Dan Norris MP

Member of Parliament for Wansdyke
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Jack Aspinwall
Majority	1,839

Born	28 January 1960 (1960-01-28) (age 48) London
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Residence	Near Pensford, North East Somerset
Alma mater	University of Sussex
Occupation	MP
Profession	Former Teacher / Child Protection Officer
Website	http://www.dannorris.org.uk/

Dan Norris (born January 28, 1960, London) is the Labour Member of Parliament for Wansdyke in England.

1 Early life
2 Parliamentary career
3 Bibliography
4 References
5 External links
6 News items

[edit] Early life

Dan Norris comes from a North East Somerset coal mining family. As a young child Dan lived with his grandparents where he witnessed his grandfather suffering a slow and painful death from lung disease contracted underground. This experience profoundly shaped Dan's politics. As North East Somerset's MP, he has actively sought health compensation for the area's former miners and their families with over three million pounds being paid out to date - the highest figure in the West of England.^{[citation needed]}

Dan Norris attended the University of Sussex, where he read a Master's in Social Work (MSW) obtaining the highest mark in his year.^{[citation needed]} Dan is a former teacher and child protection officer having trained with the NSPCC. He has a particular interest in child safety and takes a tough line against paedophiles. He strongly supports moves which give parents and carers the right to access appropriate information about those convicted of harming children. He has co-written and helped to distribute to tens of thousands of parents a free booklet on preventing child sexual abuse. He also co-wrote and produced a booklet aimed at giving practical advice about self-defence against bullies. The booklet, entitled A Kick in the Bullies, contains diagrams of the best martial arts moves to use when faced with various bullying techniques.^[1] Over half-a-million copies of his anti-bullying booklet have been distributed across the United Kingdom and requests for his popular booklets from schools and the public are high.^{[citation needed]}Dan Norris' work in child protection have been recognised by his 'Children's Charity Champion' award.^{[citation needed]}

Dan Norris is a long-standing Freedom of Information campaigner. In the early 1990s he held public meetings in Keynsham and Radstock so that North East Somerset people could check and see if their names were on the Economic League (UK) blacklist which barred them from employment. This public revealing of blacklisted names helped see the Economic League UK being wound up in 1993.^{[citation needed]}

Despite Norris's claims that he is a keen fighter for freedom of information, he has voted against 9 out of 14 parliamentary investigations or inquiries into the Iraq war since 4th June 2003. For the other 5, Norris was either absent or he abstained.^[2]

Since becoming an MP Dan Norris has not changed his view about being as open as is reasonably possible. He was the only MP of any political party in the whole of the West Country (and one of just 25 out of all the United Kingdom's 646 MPs) who voted for Freedom of Information laws to apply to MPs' allowances at the crucial Third Reading vote on this key issue on 18 May 2007.^{[citation needed]}

He was a councillor on Bristol City Council from 1989-92 / 1995-97 and Avon County Council from 1994-96.^[3] Dan Norris' predecessor in this seat was Jack Aspinwall. He is a member of the GMB Union.^[4]

[edit] Parliamentary career

He contested the seat in 1992, and Northavon in 1987. He has been an MP since the 1997 election, and took a traditionally safe Tory seat by 4,799 votes (overturning the Tory 11,770 vote majority in the 1992 election).^[5] He was an assistant whip from 2001 to 2003. In July 2007 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. He previously held a similar role in support of then-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain. He currently has the only Labour seat in Somerset.

Despite his success in the 1997 general election, and his increased majority in 2001 (from 4,799 to 5,613), the 2005 election saw Norris' lead over the Conservatives fall to 1,839. Due to boundary changes, which will apply at the next general election, Norris may find it hard to hold his seat in the newly formed 'North East Somerset' because of a Conservative resurgence (shown in the May 2007 bi-elections) and the addition of traditionally Tory 'hotspots' that were before part of the 'Bath' constituency. This would be a great shame for Norris because he would have a large chance of finding a cabinet job under Gordon Brown's likely successor, David Miliband - because Norris has worked as Miliband's parliamentary private secretary since July 2007.

During the parliamentary year of 2006/07, Norris was serving as a backbench MP. Despite this he had the 4th highest expenditure, for any Member of Parliament, at the taxpayers' expense. In total, Norris spent £172,733: £20,558 was spent on stationary and £ 22,110 was spent on "Additional costs Allowance".^[6]

As a backbencher, prior to taking on a PPS role in June 2006, Dan Norris had the highest voting record in the current Parliament of any MP - supposedly attending 97% of all votes.^{[citation needed]} Dan Norris' voting records show that he is in favour of: crime reduction measures that have somewhat seen overall crime in the UK fall; a tougher line being taken against paedophiles; the smoking ban; the introduction of ID cards, rather than a UK Border police force; 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 tougher migration controls; the Iraq war; replacing trident; the hunting ban and animal welfare measures; and an individual's equal rights irrespective of their sexuality, therefore putting the controversial liberties of the homosexual community before long established and well respected religions - for example Islam and the Catholic church.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bibliography

Violence Against Social Workers: The Implications for Practice, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1989 (with Carol Kedward).
- http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/dan_norris/wansdyke