Alf Morris

Alfred Morris, Baron Morris of Manchester, (23 March 1928 – 12 August 2012) was a British Labour Co-operative politician and disability rights campaigner.

Political career

Morris served as Member of Parliament for Manchester Wythenshawe from 1964 until 1997, having previously unsuccessfully fought the, then, safe Conservative seat of Liverpool Garston in 1951 and the Wythenshawe seat in 1959. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Fred Peart, the Agriculture Minister. Morris campaigned against British entry to the Common Market and in May 1967 Prime Minister Harold Wilson sacked him, and six others, for abstaining in a Commons vote on the issue. Fred Peart did not appoint a replacement and Morris continued to work for him, albeit unofficially. In 1968, Peart became Leader of the Commons and reappointed Morris as his Parliamentary Private Secretary. In 1974 he became the first Minister for the Disabled anywhere in the world. In 1991 he introduced a Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill and he led campaigns on Gulf War Syndrome. He served as President of the 1995 Co-operative Congress. He was president of the Haemophilia Society from 1999 to 2012.

Background Morris (one of the eight children of George Henry Morris and his wife Jessie Murphy) was raised in poor circumstances in Ancoats, Manchester.

In 1935, the family left Ancoats and moved to a new housing estate in Newton Heath. He was educated at Brookdale Park School Newton Heath along with Harold Evans, who, as editor of The Sunday Times, They had two sons and two daughters.

Awards and honours

1971 Field Marshel Lord Harding Award for distinguished service to the disabled 1979 Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom 1989 Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services, 1989 New Year Honours, New Zealand 1991 Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia 1997 Life Peer 2000 Named, with Chrissie Maher and Tim Berners-Lee, "Information Pioneers of the Century" by the UK's National Information Forum. 2005 MENCAP Lifetime achievement award 2009 Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and of the Royal College of Physicians motto = Humanity badge = A Cockatoo wings elevated and addorsed Azure beaked legged crested and within a circle of ten Mullets Or

Publications The Growth of Parliamentary Scrutiny by Committee (Oxford, Pergamon P., 1970).

Archives Catalogue of the papers of Alfred Morris at London School of Economics Archives