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Labour MP Dan Norris Suspended After Arrest On Rape And Child Abuse Allegations

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An MP has been suspended from the Commons and had the Labour whip removed after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and child abuse offences.

Dan Norris was taken into custody on Friday after his constituency home was raided.

Police say he was also arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Now he’s been suspended, Norris cannot contribute to debates or votes in the Commons for an unspecified period of time.

He is also no longer party of Labour’s parliamentary group now he’s been stripped of the whip.

Norris ousted the Conservatives’ Jacob Rees-Mogg when he was elected in July 2024′s general election to represent North East Somerset and Hanham.

He was previously elected as the MP for Wansdyke between 1997 and 2010, and served as a junior minister under Gordon Brown and an assistant whip under Tony Blair.

He became a mayor of the west of England in 2021 but is due to step down ahead of May’s local elections.

According to his website, Norris trained with child protection services the NSPCC and previously worked as a teacher and child protection officer.

A Labour party spokesperson said: “Dan Norris MP was immediately suspended by the Labour party upon being informed of his arrest.

“We cannot comment further while the police investigation is ongoing.”

Responding to the news on Sunday morning, chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told Sky News: “Clearly we’re all shocked and personally saddened by the serious allegations that have been made.

“It’s right that the Labour Party suspended the whip immediately when police informed the party of Dan Norris’s arrest.

“But, as the police have said, this is a sensitive investigation and we shouldn’t be commenting further at this stage.”

Avon and Somerset Police confirmed a man in his 60s was arrested on Friday on “suspicion of sexual offences against a girl (under the Sexual Offences Act 1956), rape (under the Sexual Offences Act 2003), child abduction and misconduct in a public office.”

“He’s been released on conditional bail for enquiries to continue,” the police said. “This is an active and sensitive investigation, so we’d respectfully ask people not to speculate on the circumstances so our enquiries can continue unhindered.

“In December 2024, we received a referral from another police force relating to alleged non-recent child sex offences having been committed against a girl.

“Most of the offences are alleged to have occurred in the 2000s, but we’re also investigating an alleged offence of rape from the 2020s.

“An investigation, led by officers within Operation Bluestone, our dedicated rape and serious sexual assault investigation team, remains ongoing and at an early stage.

“The victim is being supported and given access to any specialist help or support she needs.”

Norris has also stepped down from his role as the chair of animal welfare charity League against Cruel Sports, a spokesperson for the non-profit confirmed.

Help and support:

  • Childline – free and confidential support for young people in the UK – 0800 1111
  • Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence – 0808 802 9999
  • Survivors UK offers support for men and boys – 0203 598 3898
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Senior Labour MP Calls For National Plan To End ‘The Motherhood Penalty’

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Whether explicit or not, many politicians rest their policies on mothers accepting the ‘mental load’ – the list of caring and logistical tasks that underpin day to day life. But as tech bros now dominate public life, its time this group of overworked and undervalued labourers rebel – and we address the damage inequality is doing according. It’s time for mothering Independence Day.

The narrative that mothering should be difficult is so ingrained we rarely question it. There’s few other roles with so many memes dedicated to celebrating ‘struggle and juggle’ and in doing so failing to liberate those at the sharp end.

Yet the motherhood penalty pockmarks society, damning women to frustrated lives, men to outdated gender stereotypes and ultimately harming economic growth.

The very capacity to carry children means women face discrimination from employers fearing maternity rights obligations – a risk that will harden with the Employment Rights Bill, which improves maternity protection but not paternity rights, so reinforcing the notion its ‘ladies who do babies’.

Have a kid and say goodbye not just to your beach body but your pay packet and credibility at work. As Joeli Brearley argues: “Men get pay rises and promotions when they have kids.. women get pay cuts and demotions when they become a mother.”

In 2023 the pay gap between mothers and fathers was 24% per hour. Mothers are considered less competent and committed, especially in contrast to fathers. Politicians currently compete to bang the drum that somehow being present in the office is what makes you work. Challenging the time lost trying to combine nursery or school gate pick ups and commuting or office timetables is seen as woke, not wise.

“Get a nanny” cry commentators – as if wanting to spend time with your child in person is indulgent – yet the UK has some of the most expensive childcare in the world. The Tories crashed an already-stretched system by pushing up demand without providing the funds to properly increase supply.

Costs are still rising, with those on the lowest incomes least likely to be able to access it at all. We may have rights to flexible working, but flexibility isn’t spontaneity. In my own workplace they expect parents to plan childcare on a weekly basis, as if nursery places or childminders exist on tap.

Despite the legion of economic and social benefits, this critical economic infrastructure takes second place to debating AI and the mythical possibilities of technology.

Most mums also know the soft discrimination of being cut out because they can’t drop everything – and the gritted teeth when others try to ‘solve’ childcare for them. From those who expect you to treat your children as if they are puppies who can be left with a stranger to those who say you should “enjoy your time off” during school holidays.

It is not by accident that saying no is seen as ungrateful. The discourse that goes with motherhood is designed to reinforce rather than shatter patriarchy – if we want change we should focus on reshaping this environment, rather than forcing mums to make outdated ways of working acceptable in the first place.

Everywhere you look motherhood is associated with risk, not reward. Up to 60% of women who experience domestic abuse do so during pregnancy and 65% of maternity units have been judged not fit for purpose. Make it home and women are still working – globally doing three-quarters of the world’s unpaid work, equating to 11 billion hours a day and three times more than men.

Of course, money makes a difference to this – meaning those on the lowest incomes, single parents, the disabled or those from minority communities, are even more shut out of the conversation.

Freeing mums up from these pressures may not a topic for progressives, but its clear that defining our duties is a must for the authoritarian right. UK politics is again being flooded with tropes about family, as women’s bodies are the battlefield for their culture wars.

Whether calls for restrictions in access to abortion to the suggestion the best mums want to stay at home as ‘trad wives’ whilst men “sacrifice themselves” in offices. Handwringing about the show ‘Adolescence’ bemoans the lack of fathers and how a mother cannot be ‘enough’ – as others claim feminism created a situation where our sons have been overlooked altogether.

Mums don’t need more memes about how we’re doing great. We need a revolution. Not just to be seen, but heard and valued for both our parenting and our political contribution. That requires not just better maternity care, investment in childcare, or equal parental rights.

With women increasingly recognising the raw deal offered to mothers, we need a national plan for ending the motherhood penalty. Its time to stand up for mothers and speak up for what they are capable of before the Handmaids Tale becomes a documentary, not a satire.

Stella Creasy is the Labour MP for Walthamstow

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Exclusive: Rachel Reeves On Her ‘Weird’ Life And Why She Won’t Change Course

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“My life is a bit weird these days,” Rachel Reeves candidly admits just hours after delivering her Spring Statement to a packed House of Commons.

She is sitting with HuffPost UK in her small office inside the rabbit warren that is 11 Downing Street.

Having endured a torrid nine months since taking up her role in the wake of Labour’s landslide election victory, it is perhaps unsurprising that she seems tired.

The widespread criticism of decisions like removing winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners, hiking the employers’ rate of National Insurance and slashing nearly £5 billion from the welfare bill have clearly taken their toll.

“Rachel is very bruised and feels like she’s been made the public face of all the unpopular things that the government is having to do,” one ally said. “Being chancellor is a very lonely position when the economy is in trouble.

“She is effectively the domestic prime minister, which means she has to do a lot of things that people don’t like. It’s not a surprise that she sometimes just looks beaten.”

Reeves has become a lightning rod for the mounting public and political anger that threatens to engulf Keir Starmer’s government.

Nevertheless, there is no sign of her changing course. Calls to increase taxes on the wealthy, or for the government to borrow more rather than impose deep cuts on unprotected Whitehall departments are, for now, falling on deaf ears. The lady, it seems, is not for turning.

“It’s a job that I’ve always dreamed of doing, it’s a job that I’ve always wanted and it’s a huge privilege to be in this role and work with all of the talented people at the Treasury,” Reeves says.

She points to the fact that NHS waiting lists have fallen for five months in a row as proof that the government is making a positive difference to people’s lives.

A rise in the national living wage and the introduction of free breakfast clubs in all English primary schools are also offered up as evidence that Labour is working.

“A government doesn’t get to choose their inheritance,” Reeves says. “I wish the inheritance had been more rosy and that I hadn’t had to take such big and difficult decisions in the early months of my time in office.

“But because we took those decisions and wiped the slate clean after 14 years of economic mismanagement by the Conservatives, it means that in the changing world that we face today, we’re able to respond quickly, effectively and decisively, including reducing overseas development spending to put that money into defence.

“That’s the right thing to do in the world that we are confronted with today.”

Political jeopardy is never far away, however. Labour insiders believe more than 150 of the party’s MPs are currently opposed to the government’s welfare cuts, which they say unfairly target some of the poorest people in the country.

And while not enough of them will vote against the government to overturn Labour’s huge majority, dozens will.

“They are in a real pickle on the welfare stuff,” one source told HuffPost UK. “There is a lot of angst among Labour MPs.”

The Department of Work and Pensions’ own assessment, published on the same day as the Spring Statement, warned that 250,000 people – 50,000 of them children – will be pushed into poverty by the reforms. Reeves rejects that analysis, however.

She says: “Those numbers are based on not a single person moving from welfare into work and we are, alongside this package of welfare reforms, putting in £1 billion of targeted, personalised and guaranteed support for anybody on sickness and disability benefits to help them find work that’s appropriate for the situation that they are in.

“I know that there are thousands of people with disabilities who are desperate to work if only they were provided with the support.

The government wants to make sure “that everybody who can work, does work, while at the same time ensuring there is proper support for those who genuinely because of their sickness or disability cannot work”, she adds.

One senior Labour said many of their MPs “need to get into the real world”.

“Instead of listening to special interest groups in their constituencies, they need to go to the school gates and speak to some real people,” he said.

“Voters who get up in the morning and go to work are angry when they see their next door neighbour staying in bed.”

Reeves has also come under fire in recent days for accepting free tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert at the O2 in London.

Some in Labour were aghast that the chancellor had not realised the potential political pitfalls, especially given the row last year over MPs – including Starmer himself – accepting freebies.

While defending her decision, the chancellor tells HuffPost UK that it is not a mistake she will make again.

She says: “I went with a member of my family. As a 46-year-old woman, I wouldn’t say that I’m a massive Sabrina Carpenter fan, but that’s something a member of my family wanted and I took them to the concert.

“A lot has changed since the election in my life, and it’s the privilege of my life to do this job and I wouldn’t change it for anything, but of course there are security considerations that I haven’t had to think about in the past. That means getting tickets for a concert and just sitting in a normal row is not something I can do easily now like I could in the past.

“For security reasons, I was advised to be in a box and the owners of the O2 said that they could sort that for me. They’re not tickets that you could buy. I declared it in the proper way, but I do understand why people think it’s a bit weird – my life is a bit weird these days – but I do understand why people have concerns and I will reflect on that.”

The controversy shone a spotlight on the problems facing senior politicians as they try to juggle their public duties with their private lives.

Asked how she switches off from controlling the nation’s purse strings, Reeves says “I’ve got a young family and so I spend time with them. I go running. I used to go swimming, I haven’t done much of that since the election.

“I do try and have a bit of balance in my life – you’ll need to ask my family how good I am at achieving that.”

With the UK’s economic outlook set to remain unsettled for years to come, it may be a while before Rachel Reeves makes an appearance at a swimming pool near you.

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Here’s What Rachel Reeves Could Announce In The Spring Statement

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It was never the plan for tomorrow’s Spring Statement to be such a major parliamentary occasion.

Rachel Reeves has previously insisted that the autumn Budget, which takes place in October, would be the only fiscal event of the year.

The Spring Statement, by contrast, was only meant to be an opportunity for the chancellor to give a relatively brief “update” on the state of the economy.

But given how much the public finances have worsened in the past six months, the statement has taken on far greater significance than was originally intended.

HuffPost UK looks at the chancellor’s options and what she is expected to announce.

‘The World Has Changed’

We can expect Reeves to blame international uncertainty for the fact that the state of the UK economy has worsened since the Budget.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is set to downgrade its forecast for economic growth this year from 2% to just 1%.

This is a major blow for a chancellor who has pledged to make the UK economy the fastest growing in the G7.

In addition, the OBR will also confirm that the £10 billion of “fiscal headroom” the chancellor thought she would have at the Budget has also been wiped out.

Barret Kupelian, chief economist at PwC UK, said: “Weaker growth, worsening public finances, and higher debt costs have reduced the chancellor’s post autumn Budget room for manoeuvre.

“We expect the OBR to say the economy is growing slower than expected, leading to worse public finance outcomes and higher than expected debt-servicing costs. ”

There is no doubt that the ongoing situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, coupled with the threat of a global trade war sparked by tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, have not helped.

Reeves told the BBC last week: “We can see that the world is changing, and part of that change is increases globally in the cost of government borrowing – and Britain has not been immune from those challenges.”

But critics say some of the chancellor’s own decisions have also contributed to the economic gloom.

These include her decision at the Budget to hike the employers’ rate of National Insurance – a move which has been blamed for falling business confidence.

What Are The Chancellor’s Options?

Labour promised in the election not to increase income tax, VAT and the rate of National Insurance paid by employees.

In addition, Reeves has vowed to stick to her fiscal rules, which prevent the government from borrowing to pay for day-to-day spending.

“Economic stability is non-negotiable – I will never play fast and loose with the public finances like the previous government did,” Reeves has said.

This effectively means that the chancellor is only left with the option of cutting spending if she is to balance the books.

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announced last week that she wants to slash the welfare bill by £5 billion.

The chancellor has also confirmed that she wants to cut the size of the civil service by 15% in a move which would lead to tens of thousands of job losses in Whitehall.

Other measures include cutting the number of quangos – a process kicked off two weeks ago with the abolition of NHS England.

Major planning reforms designed to make it easier to get construction projects off the ground could also be announced as the government desperately tries to boost economic growth.

Another thing to look out for is whether or not Reeves extends the freeze on income tax thresholds beyond 2028, which could drag millions of workers into higher tax bands, potentially boosting Treasury coffers by £7 billion a year.

Labour Backlash Looms

Dozens of Labour MPs – including some ministers – are known to be furious at the welfare cuts, which are expected to see up to a million people lose their right to Personal Independence Payments.

Many of them could even defy the government whips to vote against the reforms when they come to parliament later in the year.

Charities, campaign groups and trade unions are also angry at what they see as a return to the austerity agenda of the Tories.

But Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that is “way overblown”, given the huge increase in public spending Reeves announced in the Budget.

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Really important to understand this. Talk of “austerity” is way overblown in context of what govt announced in October and by comparison with stated plans of last govt. Had they implemented those plans (unlikely) that really would have looked like austerity. https://t.co/o2r9Ycrpp5

— Paul Johnson (@PJTheEconomist) March 25, 2025

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Had they implemented those plans (unlikely) that really would have looked like austerity. https://t.co/o2r9Ycrpp5— Paul Johnson (@PJTheEconomist) March 25, 2025\n\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Paul Johnson on Twitter / X","type":"rich","url":"https://twitter.com/PJTheEconomist/status/1904490630497145152","version":"1.0"},"flags":[],"enhancements":{},"fullBleed":false,"options":{"theme":"news","device":"desktop","editionInfo":{"id":"uk","name":"U.K.","link":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk","locale":"en_GB"},"originalEdition":"uk","isMapi":false,"isAmp":false,"isAdsFree":false,"isVideoEntry":false,"isEntry":true,"isMt":false,"entryId":"67e2ae5de4b0caf90a222f5f","entryPermalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/heres-what-rachel-reeves-could-announce-in-the-spring-statement_uk_67e2ae5de4b0caf90a222f5f","entryTagsList":"labour-party,rachel-reeves,spring-statement,@ai_seo_headline","sectionSlug":"politics","deptSlug":null,"sectionRedirectUrl":null,"subcategories":"","isWide":false,"headerOverride":null,"noVideoAds":false,"disableFloat":false,"isNative":false,"commercialVideo":{"provider":"custom","site_and_category":"uk.politics","package":null},"isHighline":false,"vidibleConfigValues":{"cid":"60afc140cf94592c45d7390c","disabledWithMapiEntries":false,"overrides":{"all":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4"},"whitelisted":["56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439","56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529","570278d2e4b070ff77b98217","57027b4be4b070ff77b98d5c","56fe95c4e4b0041c4242016b","570279cfe4b06d08e3629954","5ba9e8821c2e65639162ccf1","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e","5b35266b158f855373e28256","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2","60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","60b64354b171b7444beaff4d","60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","60d0de02b627221e9d819408"],"playlists":{"default":"57bc306888d2ff1a7f6b5579","news":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","politics":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","entertainment":"56c6e7f2e4b0983aa64c60fc","tech":"56c6f70ae4b043c5bdcaebf9","parents":"56cc65c2e4b0239099455b42","lifestyle":"56cc66a9e4b01f81ef94e98c"},"playerUpdates":{"56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439":"60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b":"60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529":"60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced":"60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e":"60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2":"60d0de02b627221e9d819408"}},"connatixConfigValues":{"defaultPlayer":"8b034f64-513c-4987-b16f-42d6008f7feb","clickToPlayPlayer":"5a777b9b-81fe-41a6-8302-59e9953ee8a2","videoPagePlayer":"19654b65-409c-4b38-90db-80cbdea02cf4"},"topConnatixThumnbailSrc":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mNkYAAAAAYAAjCB0C8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","customAmpComponents":[],"ampAssetsUrl":"https://amp.assets.huffpost.com","videoTraits":null,"positionInUnitCounts":{"buzz_head":{"count":0},"buzz_body":{"count":0},"buzz_bottom":{"count":0}},"positionInSubUnitCounts":{"article_body":{"count":2},"blog_summary":{"count":0},"before_you_go_content":{"count":0}},"connatixCountsHelper":{"count":0},"buzzfeedTracking":{"context_page_id":"67e2ae5de4b0caf90a222f5f","context_page_type":"buzz","destination":"huffpost","mode":"desktop","page_edition":"en-uk"},"tags":[{"name":"labour party","slug":"labour-party","links":{"relativeLink":"news/labour-party","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/labour-party","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/labour-party"},"section":{"title":"Politics","slug":"politics"},"topic":{"title":"Labour Party","slug":"labour-party","overridesSectionLabel":false},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/labour-party/"},{"name":"rachel reeves","slug":"rachel-reeves","links":{"relativeLink":"news/rachel-reeves","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/rachel-reeves","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/rachel-reeves"},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/rachel-reeves/"},{"name":"spring statement","slug":"spring-statement","links":{"relativeLink":"news/spring-statement","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/spring-statement","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/spring-statement"},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/spring-statement/"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"cetUnit":"buzz_body","bodyAds":["

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Really important to understand this. Talk of “austerity” is way overblown in context of what govt announced in October and by comparison with stated plans of last govt. Had they implemented those plans (unlikely) that really would have looked like austerity. https://t.co/o2r9Ycrpp5

— Paul Johnson (@PJTheEconomist) March 25, 2025

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