Sir Keir Starmer was tonight rocked by the arrest of one of his MPs on suspicion of rape and child sex offences.
Dan Norris, a former Labour minister who ousted Jacob Rees-Mogg as the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham at last year’s General Election, was taken into custody after police raided his constituency home on Friday.
Officers were later seen removing boxes of Mr Norris’s belongings from the property.
Mr Norris, who trained as a child protection officer with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and has worked as a teacher, was suspended from the party pending the investigation.
Most of the alleged offences date back nearly 20 years, although the rape claim is understood to be more recent.
On Saturday afternoon, one of Mr Norris’s neighbours confirmed that there had been intense police activity at the house, set in a quiet lane amid rolling farmland, between midday and 6pm on Friday.
The neighbour told The Mail On Sunday: ‘Six unmarked cars arrived. They parked on our land blocking our drive and I had to go out to ask them to move.
‘I asked who they were, and they confirmed they were police officers. They were at his house for several hours but I didn’t see what they took away.’
Dan Norris, a former Labour minister who ousted Jacob Rees-Mogg as the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham at last year’s General Election , was taken into custody after police raided his constituency home on Friday
Sir Keir, pictured with Mr Norris, is said to have been rocked by the arrest of one of his MPs on suspicion of rape and child sex offences
Mr Norris, who trained as a child protection officer with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), has been suspended from the Labour party
Another neighbour added: ‘We’ve always found Dan lovely. He always smiles and says hello if you meet him in the lane.’
Mr Norris, 65, is also Metro Mayor for the West of England – a post he is due to relinquish at next month’s local elections due to the Government’s second job rules imposed on MPs.
Following his arrest, it is likely that the Commons authorities will ban Mr Norris from the Parliamentary estate for the duration of the investigation.
It is another headache for Sir Keir, who would not relish a by-election in North East Somerset given Mr Norris’s relatively slim majority of 5,319.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who is understood to entertain hopes of returning to the Commons, believes he would have held the seat if the Reform Party, which secured 7,424 votes, had not fielded a candidate against him. He called for a ‘coalition’ with Reform in the run-up to the election.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: ‘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.
Mr Norris, 65, is also Metro Mayor for the West of England – a post he is due to relinquish at next month’s local elections due to the Government’s second job rules imposed on MPs. Pictured: Mr Norris (centre back) with other UK mayors outside Downing Street last year
‘A man, in his sixties, 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 has been released on conditional bail for inquiries to continue.
‘This is an active and sensitive investigation, so we’d respectfully ask people not to speculate on the circumstances so that our inquiries can continue unhindered.’
Labour Party spokesman 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.’
Mr Norris was first elected in the then Wansdyke constituency when Tony Blair swept to power in 1997. He was an environment and rural affairs minister under Gordon Brown.
Once a keen Blairite, he has more recently described himself as being on the left of the Labour Party, adding: ‘Not the far left, but the left.’ He lost his seat when David Cameron entered No10 in 2010 but returned to Parliament during last year’s Labour landslide, ousting Mr Rees-Mogg in one of the most dramatic moments of the general election.
A passionate animal welfare campaigner, Mr Norris was until tonight the chairman of the League Against Cruel Sports since 2022 and had urged Sir Keir’s Government to clamp down on what he claims is ‘ongoing illegal fox hunting’.
In his profile on the League’s website, he describes how ‘generations to come will look back at the cruelty we currently inflict and judge it as a stain in history’.
The profile adds: ‘I’m a lifelong animal welfare advocate and one of my proudest achievements was calling for, and voting through, the hunting ban as an MP under the previous Labour government and later serving as an Environment and Rural Affairs Minister.’
But tonight the League announced Mr Norris had stepped down from his role.
A spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports said: ‘We can confirm Dan Norris MP has stepped down from his role as chair of the League Against Cruel Sports, and an interim chair has been appointed from the Board of Trustees.
Mr Norris, pictured with his cocker spaniel Angel, has been suspended from the Labour party
‘The charity cannot comment further while an investigation is ongoing.’
During his mayoral campaign in 2021, Sir Keir visited Bath to campaign for him – but the pair were asked to leave a pub by its landlord, who opposed the use of lockdowns during the pandemic.
In a bid to boost public transport, Mr Norris launched free bus travel for people during the month of their birthday.
But he came under fire after spending £10,000 of taxpayers’ money covering a double-decker bus with three pictures of himself and his cocker spaniel Angel.
The animal-loving Blairite MP who managed to oust Jacob Rees-Mogg
by Ryan Hooper
Blairite MP Dan Norris has spent much of his adult life in politics, working his way up from local matters to the heart of central Government.
The 65-year-old’s first taste of power was as a Bristol city councillor in the late 1980s and 1990s, as well as a brief stint on the then Avon County Council.
The Bristol City supporter, who grew up in the area, first contested a general election in 1987 when he stood to be Labour MP for Northavon – but finished third behind Tory grandee John Cope in first, and the Liberal candidate in second.
Then in 1992, he lost the seat of Wansdyke to long-serving Tory incumbent Jack Aspinwall. But animal-loving Mr Norris was not to be defeated and finally got the better of the Tory veteran in 1997 as Tony Blair’s New Labour swept to power.
In doing so, Mr Norris marked one of a few red spots on an otherwise traditionally Tory landscape.
He was handed briefs in the Treasury as assistant whip and – in a nod to his rural upbringing – as Defra minister.
He held the seat until 2010, when, in another change of Government, the constituency, redrawn by the Boundary Commission, was won by Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg. With Labour out of power – and Mr Norris out of Parliament – he returned to regional politics.
He was elected Metro Mayor of the West of England in 2021, a position he has held alongside being an MP after he defeated his old foe Sir Jacob to win back the seat of North East Somerset and Hanham last year.
He is chairman of the board of trustees for the League Against Cruel Sports, and has described himself as a ‘life-long animal welfare advocate’.
Mr Norris, a former child protection officer who trained with the NSPCC, has been arrested on suspicion of rape and child sex offences
The former child protection officer, who trained with the NSPCC, has also spoken in Parliament about his passion for looking after animals. Just this week, in an adjournment debate about trail hunting, Mr Norris said it was not a ‘peaceful activity’ but was ‘designed to get around the current legislation’.
His Register of Interests shows that he has received donations from a number of groups and individuals, including £20,000 in June last year from Ecotricity, the green energy firm founded by Dale Vince.
He enjoys photography and states his ‘favourite thing to do is go on long walks across the beautiful West of England with my cocker spaniel Angel’. Indeed the beloved pet features on several of the MP’s social media posts.
