| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Baroness Morris of Yardley | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | PC |
| Office: | Minister of State for the Arts |
| Primeminister: | Tony Blair |
| Term Start: | 13 June 2003 |
| Term End: | 5 May 2005 |
| Predecessor: | The Baroness Blackstone |
| Office1: | Secretary of State for Education and Skills |
| Primeminister1: | Tony Blair |
| Term Start1: | 8 June 2001 |
| Term End1: | 24 October 2002 |
| Successor1: | Charles Clarke |
| Office2: | Minister of State for School Standards |
| Primeminister2: | Tony Blair |
| Predecessor2: | Stephen Byers |
| Successor2: | Stephen Timms |
| Term Start2: | 28 July 1998 |
| Term End2: | 8 June 2001 |
| Office3: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for School Standards |
| Primeminister3: | Tony Blair |
| Predecessor3: | Cheryl Gillan |
| Successor3: | George Mudie |
| Term Start3: | 2 May 1997 |
| Term End3: | 28 July 1998 |
| Office4: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start4: | 14 June 2005 Life peerage |
| Office5: | Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley |
| Term Start5: | 9 April 1992 |
| Term End5: | 11 April 2005 |
| Predecessor5: | David Bevan |
| Successor5: | John Hemming |
| Birth Date: | 17 June 1952 |
| Birth Place: | Manchester, England |
| Party: | Labour |
| Parents: | Charles Morris (father) |
| Relatives: | Alf Morris (uncle) |
| Alma Mater: | Coventry College of Education |
| Birth Name: | Estelle Morris |
Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, (born 17 June 1952), is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley from 1992 to 2005.
As Education Secretary, she is famous for removing compulsory modern languages from secondary schools in England in 2002.[1]
Morris was born in Manchester into a political family. Her uncle, Alf Morris, was Labour MP for Manchester Wythenshawe (1964–1997) and her father, Charles, was Labour MP for Manchester Openshaw (1963–1983) and a Post Office union official who married Pauline Dunn. She attended Rack House primary school in Wythenshawe and Whalley Range High School in Whalley Range where she failed her English and French A-levels.[2]
She is a graduate of the Coventry College of Education,[3] where she gained a BEd degree in 1974. Morris remembered the long-serving principal, Joan Dillon Browne (1912–2009), as "a pioneer in showing what women could achieve, long before it was fashionable to do so."[4] Morris was a PE and humanities teacher at the inner-city Sidney Stringer School in Coventry from 1974 to 1992, becoming head of sixth form studies, and was a member of Warwick District Council from 1979 to 1991.
Morris was elected to Parliament in 1992 for Birmingham Yardley, gaining the seat from the Conservatives with a majority of only 162. She became a minister in the Department for Education and Employment in 1997 and was promoted to Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2001. She was the first former comprehensive school teacher to have the position. She suddenly resigned her post in October 2002, explaining that she did not feel up to the job. She had made a commitment to the then Conservative Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts to resign if the literacy and numeracy targets were not met.[5] In interviews following her resignation she stated that she had felt happier and more effective as a junior education minister.
She rejoined the government in 2003 as Minister for the Arts in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and caused further comment when she admitted that she did not know much about contemporary art. She stepped down from the government and as a Member of Parliament at the 2005 general election. Her constituency was gained by the Liberal Democrats at that election.
On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer,[6] and she was conferred as Baroness Morris of Yardley, of Yardley in the County of West Midlands, on 14 June 2005.
Between 2005 and 2009 she was pro vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland. In May 2005, she was appointed chair of the Children's Workforce Development Council. In September 2005, it was announced that she would succeed Lady Kennedy of The Shaws as president of the National Children's Bureau.[7] Also, since September 2005 she has been a member of the council of Goldsmiths, University of London and she was chair of council until 2018.[8] [9] Since 2007 she has been chair of the executive group of the Institute for Effective Education at the University of York.[10]
Morris is the chair of the medical charity, APS Support UK, for antiphospholipid syndrome[11] and was patron of Hanover Foundations.
In 2004, Morris was awarded an honorary D.A. degree from Leeds Metropolitan University[12] and an honorary D.Ed. degree from the University of Wolverhampton.[13] She received an honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Bradford on 21 July 2005,[14] and the University of Chester on 18 March 2011,[15] on 18 July 2007 she was awarded an honorary D.Ed. degree by Manchester Metropolitan University in recognition of her contribution to education throughout a lifelong career as a dedicated teacher and politician with an education portfolio that has spanned 10 years.[16] She was awarded an honorary fellowship in 2007 from the University of Cumbria.[17]
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