“I really think it’s important that Mr Rees-Mogg is defeated,” Dan Norris tells me. “So I was drawn into this contest because I believe I give Labour the very best chance of doing that.”
The West of England mayor and former MP is seeking to return to Westminster at this general election by unseating the man who took his seat back in 2010: former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Speaking over tea and coffee following an evening canvassing session, Norris denies that the contest in North East Somerset and Hanham feels like a grudge match, saying it is “always very civil on a personal level” between the two men. But he tells me that his opponent represents a strand of Conservative thinking that he finds “particularly objectionable”.
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“I think it’s very important that his kind of Conservatism – very close to Reform, quite right-wing and even extreme in some instances – is not the future for our country,” Norris says.
“Britain has got a great place in the world with its history and connections, and its language and its skills and its technology. We have an amazing future, if we are able to bring out all the talents of every one of our people, whatever their backgrounds, whatever their history.”
Rees-Mogg ‘perturbed’ to be facing a well-known challenger
Norris represented the former constituency of Wansdyke in parliament from 1997 to 2010 but lost out to Rees-Mogg at that election in the new seat of North East Somerset.
Its successor seat, North East Somerset and Hanham, has notable similarities to Wansdyke, reincorporating some of the South Gloucestershire council area wards that were lost after 2010, something Norris highlights more than once in our interview.
He argues that Rees-Mogg is clearly “very perturbed” to be facing a challenger who is well known locally, telling me: “Normally, incumbency is a big advantage to somebody, but I also have incumbency, because I represent him as the mayor, and he represents me as the MP or former MP. So that advantage that he would normally expect to have has been taken away.”
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Norris describes the reception on the doorstep as “good” and speaks of a “visceral” anger towards the Tories. But he argues that Labour has still “got to build trust and that connection with voters”.
“We still have to get that message across to people that we’re not all the same, that Labour can be different, and in fact, are different. And because they’ve been so scarred by the last 14 years, it’s going to take a little while.”
He echoes the party leadership’s line about offering voters a deliverable vision, stressing the importance of “expectation management” if Labour comes into government.
“People will want things to happen quickly. Understandably, the cost-of-living crisis is frightening an awful lot of people,” he says. “But we have to be very honest and say: ‘Look, this is at least two terms to deal with many of these very entrenched problems.'”
Tories have done a ‘pretty poor job’ when it comes to the mayors
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one area in which he is hoping Labour will bring about change is for the regional mayors. His term as mayor of the West of England ends in 2025, and he has told local media that, if he wins election to parliament, he plans to work both jobs.
He claims that the Tories have done a “pretty poor job” when it comes to the mayors, telling me: “The Tories always putting party before country, basically. And that’s played out, I think, with regional mayors.”
“What I’m hoping is that – and it appears to be starting to happen – should there be a Labour government, that there will be different ways of doing things and a lot of that will go through regional mayors. And I think that’s right because you should make decisions as close as possible to where they have an impact, wherever you can.”
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Norris identifies the introduction of the birthday bus scheme as one of his key achievements as mayor. The scheme – which allows people in the region to travel for free on buses during the month of their birthday – has attracted considerable criticism over its design and Norris’ approach to it.
But Norris claims that the scheme has been “very popular” and also argues that it is an “intelligent way of policy”, with the data collected through the scheme enabling him to improve its design as time goes on.
‘I will serve in whatever way the leadership thinks is best’
Asked what first brought him into Labour, Norris points to his experience as a child protection officer, telling me: “I was just seeing terrible things happening to children and there weren’t resources.
“I was working with fantastic people who were burning out because there were too few staff and too high case loads. And I realised that if I wanted to do something about that, then I needed to do that in parliament.”
Norris served in various frontbench roles under the last Labour government, including as a minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
But he denies that he is eyeing up any roles in a potential incoming Labour government: “I am wise enough, and having done it before, to know that that’s entirely in the Prime Minister’s hands. I’m always ready to serve my party. But that isn’t why I’m in it.”
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“I will serve in whatever way the Labour leadership thinks I can best do that,” he adds. “But I think my first objective is to win the North East Somerset and Hanham seat. And that’s what I’m totally devoted to doing at this precise moment. So anything else, frankly, just not in my thoughts.”
‘Losing your seat doesn’t change you or the world’
Norris’ contest against Rees-Mogg has been seen as a potential ‘Portillo moment’ at this election – and recent polling has pointed to a Labour victory (though Norris stresses he is fighting like he is “20 points behind”).
Asked how it feels as an MP to lose your seat, and for any advice for MPs losing their seats at this election, Norris says: “It’s a great honour to be an MP. And just because it ends doesn’t change you or the world. Though the role makes you feel important and what have you, actually, you’re not that important. What’s important is the movement that you’re part of, because as an individual, actually, you’re just part of a bigger whole.”
He adds: “Remember that whoever you are, whatever politician you are, whatever party you’re in, you are only a small part of a huge machine that is needed to bring about positive change if you get it right. And it’s a great honour to just be a small, modest part of that, frankly. And I’m very grateful for that experience.”
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