Grahame Morris

Grahame Morris
Official portrait, 2020
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In office 27 June 2016 – 7 October 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Jon Trickett
Succeeded by	Teresa Pearce
Member of Parliament for Easington
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	John Cummings
Majority	6,581 (19.0%)
Personal details
Born	(1961-03-13) 13 March 1961 (age 63)
Political party	Labour
Other political affiliations	Socialist Campaign Group
Residence(s)	Seaham, County Durham, England
Alma mater	Newcastle College Newcastle Polytechnic
Website	Official website

Grahame Mark Morris^[1] (born 13 March 1961)^[2] 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.^[3][4][5] He was one of a handful of Labour MPs newly elected in 2010 considered to be on the left of the party politically.^[6]

Morris chairs the Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.^[7] In October 2014, he presented the motion in Parliament calling on the government to formally recognise Palestinian statehood.^[8]

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

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.^[14][15] Morris later apologised and said it was an "honest mistake".^[16] He referenced the dangers of fake news and said he would check sources with more care in future.^[17]

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.^[18] 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.^[19]

Personal life

Morris lives in Seaham, County Durham.^[20] He is a prominent supporter of Sunderland A.F.C.^[21]

Notes

References

1. "No. 59418". The London Gazette. 13 May 2010. p. 8741.
2. "Grahame Morris MP". BBC Democracy Live. BBC. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
3. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
4. http://www.durham.gov.uk/PDFApproved/ParliamentaryElection2010_SoPN_EAS.pdf^{[permanent dead link‍]}
5. "BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Easington". BBC News.
6. Jones, Owen (14 March 2015). "Yes, there is still life for the left after Tony Benn and Bob Crow". Guardian. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
7. Dysch, Marcus (22 September 2014). "Ed Miliband defends Labour stance on Gaza conflict". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
8. "Grahame Morris on MPs recognising state of Palestine". BBC. 13 October 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
9. Eaton, George (26 January 2015). "The Labour left demand a change of direction – why their intervention matters". New Statesman. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
10. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
11. Bright, Sam (15 June 2015). "Who nominated who for the 2015 Labour leadership election?". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
12. Ross Robertson (28 June 2016). "Easington MP appointed to Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet". Sunderland Echo. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
13. "Easington Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
14. "UK Labour MP uses footage of Guatemalan troops to castigate IDF". The Times of Israel. 22 April 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
15. Frantzman, Seth J. (23 April 2019). "A Labour MP Tweets False Video of IDF 'Abuses'". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
16. Allegretti, Aubrey (23 April 2019). "Labour MP Grahame Morris apologises over fake Israel attack video". Sky News. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
17. "Labour MP apologises after falsely blaming Israeli soldiers for attack". Denbigh Free News. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
18. "Easington Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
19. Easington
20. "Profile – Grahame Morris". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
21. "Sunderland AFC Ladies' WSL snub set to be raised in Parliament". www.sunderlandecho.com. Retrieved 3 March 2020.

External links

• Official website

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Cummings	Member of Parliament for Easington 2010–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Jon Trickett	Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 2016	Succeeded by Teresa Pearce
	Shadow Minister for the Constitutional Convention 2016