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The Right Honourable Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, PC (born 1952) is an English Labour politician and member of the House of Lords. She was briefly a member of the Cabinet.
Estelle Morris was born to a strongly political family. Her uncle, Alf Morris, was Labour MP for Manchester Wythenshawe from 1964 and her father, Charles Morris, was Labour MP for Manchester Openshaw (1963–83). She is a graduate of the University of Warwick. She was a teacher at the inner-city Sidney Stringer school in Coventry and was a member of Warwick District Council from 1979 to 1991.
Morris was elected to Parliament in 1992 for Birmingham Yardley She became a minister in the Department for Education and Employment in 1997 and was promoted to Secretary of State for Education and Skills in 2001.
She resigned her post in 2002, explaining that she did not feel 'up to the job'. She had made a commitment to the then Conservative Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts to resign if the literacy and numeracy targets were not met.
"Mr. Willetts: Will the Minister commit herself to the Secretary of State's pledge to resign if the Government do not reach their literacy and numeracy targets by 2002?
Ms Morris: Of course I will; I have already done so." (Hansard – 2 Mar 1999 : Column 948)
Not all the targets were met and she made the decision to resign. The specific reason for her resignation was obscured at the time.
She rejoined the Government in 2003 as Minister for the Arts in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and caused further comment when she admitted that she did not know much about contemporary art. She stepped down as a Member of Parliament, and so as a minister, at the 2005 general election.
In April 2005 she was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sunderland. In May 2005, she was appointed chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council. In September 2005, it was announced that she would succeed Lady Kennedy of The Shaws as President of the National Children's Bureau.
On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer, and the title was gazetted as Baroness Morris of Yardley, of Yardley in the County of West Midlands, on 15 June 2005.
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| Preceded bySec. State. Education and Employment David Blunkett |
Secretary of State for Education and Skills 2001–2002 |
Succeeded byCharles Clarke |