Michael Wolfgang Laurence Morris, Baron Naseby, PC (born 25 November 1936) is a British Conservative Party politician.
The Lord Naseby | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2019 | |
| Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Chairman of Ways and Means | |
| In office 6 May 1992 – 14 May 1997 | |
| Speaker | Betty Boothroyd |
| Preceded by | Harold Walker |
| Succeeded by | Alan Haselhurst |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 11 November 1997 Life Peerage | |
| Member of Parliament for Northampton South | |
| In office 28 February 1974 – 8 April 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency Created |
| Succeeded by | Tony Clarke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 November 1936 London, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Ann Phyllis Appleby |
| Alma mater | St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
Early life
editBorn in London and educated at Bedford School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, Morris was taught to fly in Pakistan and Canada and served in the Royal Air Force.[1]
Parliamentary career
editMorris contested Islington North at the 1966 general election, being beaten by Labour's Gerry Reynolds.
He was first elected to the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election for the then-marginal seat of Northampton South.[2] His majority was just 179 in February 1974, and 141 in October 1974. In 1983 boundary changes turned it into a safe Conservative seat.
Morris oversaw the passing of the Maastricht Treaty in the Commons in his role as Deputy Speaker. He was defeated by 744 votes at the 1997 general election,[3][4] when the Labour Party under Tony Blair won a landslide victory.
From 1992, Morris held the non-voting position of Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker, and after the election he accepted a life peerage as Baron Naseby, of Sandy in the County of Bedfordshire on 28 October 1997.[5]
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Controversies
editIn 2014, the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator Peter Oborne described Lord Naseby as an apologist for the Sri Lankan government, who had given misleading and inaccurate statements about war crimes in Sri Lanka. He was described as giving "comfort to the perpetrators of state sponsored terror" and receiving hospitality from the Sri Lankan government.[7] Human rights groups accuse Lord Naseby of purposely downplaying the death toll figures gathered by the United Nations panel in 2011 which found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war in 2009.[8][9][10]
References
edit- ^ Lord Lexden, The Few Who Flew: RAF National Service Pilots 1955-1957, 15 November 2022, https://www.alistairlexden.org.uk/news/book-review-flying-high
- ^ "Patrons". Naseby Battlefield Project. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ "Northampton South". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ Bennetto, Jason; Russell, Ben (18 November 2005). "Two charged over leak of Blair-Bush conversation on conflict". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ "No. 54851". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 August 1997. p. 8910. "No. 54936". The London Gazette. 3 November 1997. p. 1.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2000.
- ^ Peter Oborne, The Telegraph, 4 June 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20150421020342/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100274702/lord-naseby-has-misled-the-lords-over-sri-lanka-he-must-withdraw-his-allegations/
- ^ Darusman, Marzuki; Sooka, Yasmin; Ratner, Steven R. (31 March 2011). Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka (PDF). United Nations. p. 41.
- ^ Sri Lanka Campaign for peace and justice - Lord Naseby’s ‘revelations’: a hollow attempt to re-write history and deny justice (2017) - https://www.srilankacampaign.org/lord-nasebys-revelations-hollow-attempt-re-write-history-deny-justice/
- ^ Sri Lanka Campaign for peace and justice - Why the Paisley scandal should prompt wider scrutiny of the UK-Sri Lanka war crimes denial lobby (2018) https://www.srilankacampaign.org/why-the-paisley-scandal-should-prompt-wider-scrutiny-of-the-uk-sri-lanka-lobby/
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