Alf Morris

For other people named Alfred Morris, see Alfred Morris (disambiguation).

Alfred Morris, Baron Morris of Manchester, AO, QSO, PC (born 23 March 1928) is a British Labour Co-operative politician and disability campaigner.

Political career

Morris served as Member of Parliament for Manchester Wythenshawe from 1964 until 1997. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Fred Peart, the Agriculture Minister.

Morris, whose father suffered a long decline in health and eventual death arising from gassing during World War I, became a campaigner on behalf of those with disabilities. After his father's death, Morris's mother was not entitled to a war widow's pension. Forty years later, Morris himself put the matter right by changing the law affecting armed forces pensions when he became Minister for the Disabled.

In 1970 he successfully introduced the Chronically Sick & Disabled Persons Act which was the first in the world to recognise and give rights to people with disabilities. 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 has led campaigns on Gulf War Syndrome.

He was created a life peer as Lord Morris of Manchester, of Manchester in the County of Greater Manchester in 1997. He was a life member of the GMB Union. He served as President of the 1995 Co-operative Congress.

Background

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

In 1935 the Morris family left Ancoats and moved to a new housing estate that had been built on farmland in the Parish of Newton Heath. Here the family's lives improved. He was educated at Brookdale Park School Newton Heath, Manchester along with his fellow pupil Harold Evans, who, as editor of The Sunday Times, wrote a leader saying that: "As time ticked away to the 1970 general election, Alf Morris's Bill was the only piece of legislation worth saving." He received evening school tuition. He worked from the age of 14 as a clerk in the local Wilson's Brewery.

Morris did his national service in the army, mainly in the Middle East, from 1946–48. He then studied at Ruskin College, Oxford (1949–1950), St Catherine's College, Oxford (BA modern history 1953) and the Department of Education, Manchester University.

Morris worked as a Manchester schoolteacher and university extension lecturer in social history (1954–1956) and as an Industrial relations officer to the Electrical Supply Industry (1956–1964).

Family

He has been married to Irene Jones since 1950. They have two sons and two daughters.

His brother Charles Morris and his niece Estelle Morris have also served as Labour MPs.

Archives

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