Michael Morris, Baron Naseby

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

The Right Honourable The Lord Naseby PC
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
Incumbent
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	(1936-11-25) 25 November 1936 London, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Ann Phyllis Appleby
Alma mater	St Catharine's College, Cambridge

Michael Wolfgang Laurence Morris, Baron Naseby, PC (born 25 November 1936) is a British Conservative Party politician.

Early life

Born 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.

Parliamentary career

Morris 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. 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, 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.

Coat of arms of Michael Morris, Baron Naseby

Crest Upon a helm with a wreath Argent and Azure behind and grasping two pikes in saltire or beribboned Azure an eagle displayed Argent beaked and legged Or. Escutcheon Azure a pall Argent cotised Or between three lotuses the corollas outwards Argent. Supporters On either side a horse statant erect reguardant Argent maned tailed and unguled and supporting between the forelegs a mace Or. Motto Cogito Ergo Sum

Controversies

In 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. 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.