Estelle Morris

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Morris of Yardley
PC
Estelle Morris at the PAS report launch.jpg
Minister of State for the Arts
In office
13 June 2003 – 5 May 2005
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by The Baroness Blackstone
Succeeded by David Lammy (Culture)
Secretary of State for Education and Skills
In office
8 June 2001 – 24 October 2002
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by David Blunkett (Education and Employment)
Succeeded by Charles Clarke
Minister of State for Schools
In office
18 July 1998 – 8 June 2001
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by Stephen Byers
Succeeded by Stephen Timms
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Yardley
In office
10 April 1992 – 11 April 2005
Preceded by David Bevan
Succeeded by John Hemming
Personal details
Born (1952-06-17) 17 June 1952 (age 72)
Manchester, England
Political party Labour
Alma mater Coventry College of Education

Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, PC (born 17 June 1952) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley from 1992 to 2005, and served briefly in the Cabinet as Education Secretary.

Early life

Morris was born in Manchester into a political family. Her uncle, Alf Morris, was Labour MP for Manchester Wythenshawe (1964–97) and her father, Charles, was Labour MP for Manchester Openshaw (1963–83) 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. [1]

She is a graduate of the Coventry College of Education,[2] where she gained a BEd 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."[3] Morris was a PE and Humanities teacher at the inner-city Sidney Stringer School in Coventry from 1974–92, becoming Head of Sixth Form Studies, and was a member of Warwick District Council from 1979 to 1991.

Parliamentary career

Morris was elected to Parliament in 1992 for Birmingham Yardley, gaining the seat from the Conservatives with only a wafer-thin majority of 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.[4] 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.

On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer,[5] and she was conferred as Baroness Morris of Yardley, of Yardley in the County of West Midlands, on 14 June 2005.[6]

Career outside Parliament

In April 2005 she was appointed 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. Since 2009 she has been chair of the Executive Group of the Institute for Effective Education at the University of York.

Morris is the Chair of the medical charity, the Hughes Syndrome Foundation.

Awards

In 2004, Morris was awarded Honorary Doctorates in Arts from Leeds Metropolitan University[7] and in Education from the University of Wolverhampton.[8] She received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Bradford on 21 July 2005,[9] and the University of Chester on 18 March 2011,[10] on 18 July 2007 she was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Education 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 ten years.[citation needed]

References

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External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Yardley
1992–2005		 Succeeded by
John Hemming
Political offices
Preceded by as Secretary of State for Education and Employment Secretary of State for Education and Skills
2001–2002		 Succeeded by
Charles Clarke
Preceded by Minister of State for the Arts
2003–2005		 Succeeded by
David Lammy
as Minister of State for Culture
  1. ↑ Education School standards minister failed A levels
  2. ↑ [1] Archived 2 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6010568
  4. ↑ (Hansard – 2 March 1999 : Column 948)
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 57677. p. 7919. 17 June 2005. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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