Dan Norris - Parliamentary Career

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, but again lost against the conservative incumbent, Jack Aspinwall.

He contested the Wansdyke seat once more in the 1997 election, 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 2001 election, the 2005 election 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 the Conservative's Jacob Rees-Mogg.

During his time in parliament, Norris was an assistant whip from 2001 to 2003. In July 2007 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, a role he had previously performed for Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain. 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.

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. In total, Norris spent £172,733: £4,271 was spent on centrally purchased stationary, £16,287 on the associated postage cost, and £22,110 as part of the "Additional costs Allowance".

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 - attending 97% of all votes however since then his voting record has dropped to 83%. Dan 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 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 migration controls; the Iraq war; not having an investigation into the Iraq war; replacing trident; the hunting ban and animal welfare measures; and gay rights.

Norris was the only MP of any political party in the whole of the West Country (and one of just 25 out of the 121 MP who voted on this bill) 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. Norris has a particular interest in child safety and regularly campaigns against child sexual abuse. He has co-written a free booklet on preventing child sexual abuse. He also co-wrote and produced a booklet aimed at giving practical advice to children about dealing with bullying entitled 'Don't Bully Me.

Following his defeat at the 2010 general election, Norris turned his attention to working for former Foreign Secretary David Miliband in his ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Labour leadership.

Norris is an ambassador for the children's charity Kidscape.