Grahame Morris Explained

Grahame Morris
Office:Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Leader:Jeremy Corbyn
Term Start:27 June 2016
Term End:7 October 2016
Predecessor:Jon Trickett
Successor:Teresa Pearce
Office1:Member of Parliament
for Easington
Term Start1:6 May 2010
Predecessor1:John Cummings
Majority1:6,581 (19.0%)
Birth Date:1961 3, df=yes
Residence:Seaham, County Durham, England
Alma Mater:Newcastle College
Newcastle Polytechnic
Party:Labour
Otherparty:Socialist Campaign Group

Grahame Mark Morris (born 13 March 1961)[1] is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Easington since 2010.

Morris briefly served on the Opposition frontbench of Jeremy Corbyn in 2016, and now remains in the House of Commons as a backbencher.

Early life and career

Grahame Morris was born on 13 March 1961, and was educated at Howletch Comprehensive School (now East Durham College). He first worked as a medical laboratory scientific officer in hospitals in Sunderland. Morris has been involved with politics since 1987 when he became a District Councillor for Easington. He worked as a researcher for previous John Cummings since 1997, and was also Secretary of Easington Labour Party.

Parliamentary career

At the 2010 general election, Morris was elected to Parliament as MP for Easington with 58.9% of the vote and a majority of 14,982.[2] [3] [4] He was one of a handful of Labour MPs newly elected in 2010 considered to be on the left of the party politically.[5]

Morris chairs the Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.[6] In October 2014, he presented the motion in Parliament calling on the government to formally recognise Palestinian statehood.[7]

Morris was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.[8]

At the 2015 general election, Morris was re-elected as MP for Easington with an increased vote share of 61% and a decreased majority of 14,641.[9]

Morris was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015, after the 2015 general election.[10]

On 27 June 2016, Morris was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Shadow Minister for the Constitutional Convention.[11]

Morris was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election, with an increased vote share of 63.7% and an increased majority of 14,892.[12]

On 22 April 2019, Morris retweeted a video he had received, supposedly about Palestinian children, and captioned it as Israeli soldiers "caught on camera beating up Palestinian children for the fun of it". However, the video was actually of Guatemalan, not Israeli, soldiers.[13] [14] Morris later apologised and said it was an "honest mistake".[15] He referenced the dangers of fake news and said he would check sources with more care in future.[16]

At the 2019 general election, Morris was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 45.5% and a decreased majority of 6,581.[17] He was again re-elected at the 2024 general election, with an increased vote share of 48.9% and a decreased majority of 6,542.[18]

Personal life

Morris lives in Seaham, County Durham.[19] He is a prominent supporter of Sunderland A.F.C.[20]

Notes

  1. News: Grahame Morris MP . BBC . BBC Democracy Live . 25 July 2010.
  2. Web site: Election Data 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130726162034/http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/electdata_2010.txt . 26 July 2013 . 17 October 2015 . Electoral Calculus.
  3. http://www.durham.gov.uk/PDFApproved/ParliamentaryElection2010_SoPN_EAS.pdf{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
  4. News: BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Easington . BBC News.
  5. News: Jones. Owen. Yes, there is still life for the left after Tony Benn and Bob Crow. 5 April 2015. Guardian. 14 March 2015.
  6. News: Dysch, Marcus . 22 September 2014 . Ed Miliband defends Labour stance on Gaza conflict . 23 September 2014 . The Jewish Chronicle.
  7. News: 13 October 2014 . Grahame Morris on MPs recognising state of Palestine . 5 April 2015 . BBC.
  8. News: Eaton. George. The Labour left demand a change of direction – why their intervention matters. 5 April 2015. New Statesman. 26 January 2015.
  9. Web site: Election Data 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151017112223/http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/electdata_2015.txt . 17 October 2015 . 17 October 2015 . Electoral Calculus.
  10. Web site: Bright . Sam . Who nominated who for the 2015 Labour leadership election? . Newstatesman.com . 15 June 2015 . 19 July 2016.
  11. News: Easington MP appointed to Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet . Ross Robertson . Sunderland Echo . 28 June 2016 . 3 July 2016.
  12. News: Easington Parliamentary constituency . 24 November 2019 . BBC News . BBC.
  13. News: . April 22, 2019 . UK Labour MP uses footage of Guatemalan troops to castigate IDF . . April 23, 2019.
  14. News: Frantzman . Seth J. . April 23, 2019 . A Labour MP Tweets False Video of IDF 'Abuses' . . April 23, 2019.
  15. News: Labour MP Grahame Morris apologises over fake Israel attack video. Allegretti. Aubrey. 23 April 2019. 1 May 2019. Sky News.
  16. News: Labour MP apologises after falsely blaming Israeli soldiers for attack. 23 April 2019. 1 May 2019. Denbigh Free News.
  17. News: Easington Parliamentary constituency . 24 November 2019 . BBC News . BBC.
  18. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001211 Easington
  19. News: Profile – Grahame Morris. The Daily Telegraph. dead. 7 May 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110831205250/http://ukpolitics.telegraph.co.uk/Easington/Grahame+Morris. 31 August 2011.
  20. Web site: Sunderland AFC Ladies' WSL snub set to be raised in Parliament. 2020-03-03. www.sunderlandecho.com. en.

External links

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