Griff Rhys Morrison

[David Spicer]

Name: Gryffydd "Griff" Rhys Morrison
Avatar: Ralph Fiennes
Age: 65 (b. 05.02.1957)
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: White British
Marital Status: Married
Sexuality: Heterosexual 

Party: Labour and Cooperative 
Political Outlook: A blur of Brownite and Open Labour with some Blue Labour policies included 
Constituency: Easington
Year elected: 1997

Education: PPE, Durham
Career: 

• 1979 - 1985 | Officer, Royal Navy (Sub-Lieutenant)
• 1985 - 1993 | Writer and journalist, New Statesman
• 1993 - 1997 | Researcher, Labour Party

Political Career: 

• 1997 - Pres. | Member of Parliament for Easington
• 2001 - 2007 | Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Reid
• 2007 - 2010 |  Parliamentary Undersecretary of State, Northern Ireland Office
• 2010 - 2015 | Member, Defence Select Committee 
• 2015 - 2019 | Member, Security and Intelligence Committee 

 

Biography

Gruffydd "Griff" Owain Rhys Morrison, also known as Griff Rhys Morrison or GRM, was born in Caernarfon, Wales, in 1957. The son of Owain Rhys Morrison, a coalminer and his North East-born wife Enid, Rhys Morrison was brought up in a relatively stable family home. His father left his job at the mine in 1950 and joined the British Army. He served in the Mayalsian Emergency and was killed in 1964, Enid moved the family back to her home village of Seaham, County Durham. 

Rhys Morrison was fortunate enough to obtain a scholarship to attend Durham University as a member of St Cuthbert's Society where his uncle was a rector. Upon graduating, Rhys Morrison describes having lost his sense of purpose and coming to terms with his father's death. He joined the Royal Navy and served for six years including combat in the Falklands War, for which he received promotion. 

Rhys Morrison left the Navy in 1985 and joined the New Statesman as a journalist and writer. He wrote pieces on defence and foreign policy as well as domestic questions such as the situation in Northern Ireland. He was dismayed at what he saw as a breakdown of social and moral order in the 1980s.  He unsuccessfully ran for Parliament in the 1989 and 1992 General Elections. 

He was a supporter of John Smith and later Tony Blair's modernisation agenda within the Labour Party, which he viewed as an opportunity to resolve the polarisation he had witnessed. He was elected for Easington in 1997. He associated himself with the Brownite and Open Labour wings of the Labour Party. 

From 2001 to 2007, he served as a PPS to John Reid, then Defence Secretary and Home Secretary. Upon Gordon Brown's premiership, Rhys Morrison served as a junior member of the Northern Ireland Office. 

In Opposition, Rhys Morrison served on the Defence Select Committee during the leadership of Ed Miliband, though was a keen supporter from the backbenches. Being broadly to the right of the Corbynite majority, Rhys Morrison served from 2015 to 2019 as a member of the Security and Intelligence Committee. He did not seek re-election to committee following the 2019 General Election.