Michael Wolfgang Laurence Morris, Baron Naseby, (born 25 November 1936) is a

British Conservative Party The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. The party sits on the centre-right to right- ...

politician.

Early life

Born in London and educated at

Bedford School Bedford School is a 7–18 Single-sex education, boys Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the county town of Bedford in England. Founded in 1552, it is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust. Bed ...

and

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

, Morris was taught to fly in Pakistan and Canada and served in the Royal Air Force.

Parliamentary career

Morris contested

Islington North Islington North is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in Greater London established for 1885 United Kingdom general election, the 1885 general election. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of C ...

at the 1966 general election, being beaten by Labour's Gerry Reynolds. He was first elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

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 Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

won a landslide victory. From

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, Morris held the non-voting position of ''Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker'', and after the election he accepted a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

age as Baron Naseby, of

Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

in the County of Bedfordshire on 28 October 1997.

Controversies

In 2014, the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator

Peter Oborne Peter Alan Oborne (; born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator of ''The Daily Telegraph'', from which he resigned in early 2015. He is author of ''The Rise of Political Lying'' (2005 ...

described Lord Naseby as an apologist for the Sri Lankan government, who had given misleading and inaccurate statements about

war crimes in Sri Lanka War crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war are war crimes and crimes against humanity which the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) have been accused of committing during the final mo ...

. 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.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/

References

1936 births Living people Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies

Naseby Naseby is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census was 687. The village is north of Northa ...

Life peers created by Elizabeth II Deputy speakers of the British House of Commons UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Naseby, Michael Morris, Baron People educated at Bedford School Sri Lanka Rathna {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1930s-stub