{{Short description|Northern Irish unionist politician (born 1948)}} {{pp-pc}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Use British English|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Morrow | honorific_suffix = | image = Official portrait of Lord Morrow crop 2, 2022.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Morrow in 2022 | office1 = Minister for Communities | first_minister1 = Arlene Foster | term_start1 = 12 January 2016 | term_end1 = 25 May 2016 | predecessor1 = Mervyn Storey | successor1 = Paul Givan | office2 = Minister for Social Development | first_minister2 = David Trimble | term_start2 = 27 July 2000 | term_end2 = 24 October 2001 | predecessor2 = Nigel Dodds | successor2 = Nigel Dodds | office4 = Member of the Legislative Assembly <br />for Fermanagh & South Tyrone | assembly4 = Northern Ireland | majority4 = | term_start4 = 25 June 1998 | term_end4 = 26 January 2017 | predecessor4 = ''Constituency created'' | successor4 = ''Seat abolished'' | birth_name = Maurice George Morrow | office = Member of the House of Lords | status = Lord Temporal | term_label = Life peerage | term_start = 7 June 2006 | term_end = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1948|9|27|df=yes}} | birth_place = Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland | death_date = | death_place = | party = Democratic Unionist Party | children = 2 }}

'''Maurice George Morrow, Baron Morrow''' (born 27 September 1948)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aims.niassembly.gov.uk/mlas/details.aspx?&aff=2420&per=79&sel=1&ind=11&prv=1 |title=MLA Details: Lord Morrow of Clogher Valley |website=Aims.niassembly.gov.uk|accessdate=27 June 2016}}</ref> is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland representing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who has been Chairman of the DUP since 2000.

==Early life and education== The son of Ernest and Eliza Jane Morrow, He was educated at Ballygawley Primary School, Drumglass High School and Dungannon Technical College, following which he pursued a career as an estate agent.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7pDAQAAIAAJ&q=lord%20maurice%20morrow | isbn=978-0-905702-89-6 | title=Dod's Parliamentary Companion | date=2009 | publisher=Dod's Parliamentary Companion Limited }}</ref> Like so many other Democratic Unionist Party elected representatives from that era he lacked a third-level education.

==Political Representative==

His political career began in 1973 when he was elected to Fermanagh District Council.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}} He was also a councillor on Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council representing Dungannon Town. He served as a MLA of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998, until losing his seat in 2017. In July 2000 he became minister for social development in the Northern Ireland Executive.

It was announced on 11 April 2006 that Morrow would be one of the first three members of the DUP to be created life peers,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=58007|date=12 June 2006|page=8001}}</ref> giving the party its first representation in the House of Lords. He was created '''Baron Morrow''', of Clogher Valley in the County of Tyrone, on 7 June 2006<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/58007|title=Gazette Article |website= www.thegazette.co.uk|access-date=2021-05-11}}</ref> and was formally introduced to the House of Lords on 27 June.<ref>{{cite web|author=Minute Office, House of Lords |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/minutes/060627/ldminute.htm |title=House of Lords – Minute|website=Publications.parliament.uk|accessdate=27 July 2016}}</ref> Other DUP peers appointed as "working" life peers alongside Morrow were Wallace Browne, former lord mayor of Belfast, and Eileen Paisley, a former vice-president of the DUP and wife of the late leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley. At the same time, it was announced that David Trimble, former MP and former leader of the Ulster Unionists, was also being appointed as a working life peer.

===Sex Bill=== After hearing testimony about children and adults forced to work in brothels, farms and factories, including that of a Romanian woman who had been kidnapped in London and forced to work as a prostitute in Ireland, he put forward a bill to the Northern Ireland Assembly: the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act, passed in 2015, which made Northern Ireland the first and only place in the UK where the act of buying sex is a crime. The act of selling sex, by contrast, was decriminalised.<ref>{{cite news|title='I was kidnapped in London and trafficked for sex'|work=BBC News|date=7 August 2018|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-45103617|accessdate=19 January 2019}}</ref> The law was opposed by campaigners who wished to see the total decriminalisation of sex work.<ref>{{cite web|title='Lies, damn lies and TORL statistics'|author=Laura Lee|date=10 June 2015|url=https://www.escort-scotland.com/blog/laura-lee-lies-damn-lies-and-torl-statistics/|publisher=Laura Lee|accessdate=10 June 2015}}</ref> An application for judicial review failed on the death of the campaigner who had proposed it.<ref>{{cite news|title=Laura Lee legal battle over prostitution laws formally withdrawn following her death|newspaper=Belfasttelegraph|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/laura-lee-legal-battle-over-prostitution-laws-formally-withdrawn-following-her-death-36684798.html|accessdate=19 January 2019}}</ref>

==Personal life== Morrow is married and has two daughters. He maintains an interest in rural development.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lord Morrow of Clogher Valley: Party Chairman|url=https://mydup.com/our-team/lord-morrow|website=My DUP|access-date=5 April 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.dup.org.uk/MauriceMorrow.asp Maurice Morrow MLA], DUP website * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081212094207/http://www.parliament.uk/directories/house_of_lords_information_office/alphabetical_list_of_members.cfm#M#M List of Members], House of Lords * [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/minutes/060627/ldminute.htm Notice of Lord Morrow's Introduction], House of Lords – Minute * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4897808.stm Four new unionist peers appointed], ''BBC News'', 11 April 2006 * [https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/13733/lord_morrow/votes TheyWorkForYou Voting Record], ''TheyWorkForYou'' TheyWorkForYou

{{s-start}} {{s-par|ni/for}} {{s-new | Forum}} {{s-ttl | title = Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone | years = 1996–1998 }} {{s-non | reason = Forum dissolved }}

{{s-par|ni/ass}} {{s-new | Assembly }} {{s-ttl | title = MLA for Fermanagh & South Tyrone | years = 1998–2017 }} {{s-non | reason = Seat abolished }}

{{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=James McClure}} {{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Democratic Unionist Party|years=2000?–present}} {{s-inc}}

{{s-off}} {{succession box | title = Minister for Social Development | years = 2000–2001 | before = Nigel Dodds | after = Nigel Dodds }} {{succession box | title = Minister for Communities | years = 2016 | before = Mervyn Storey | after = Paul Givan }} {{s-prec|uk}} {{s-bef|before=The Lord Teverson}} {{s-ttl|title=Gentlemen'''<br />''Baron Morrow'' '''}} {{s-fol|after=The Lord Morris of Handsworth}} {{s-end}}

{{Democratic Unionist Party}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrow, Maurice}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Democratic Unionist Party life peers Category:Members of the Northern Ireland Forum Category:Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Category:Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Category:Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Category:Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Category:Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Category:Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999) Category:Politicians from County Tyrone Category:Democratic Unionist Party MLAs Category:Members of Fermanagh District Council Category:Members of Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council Category:Presbyterians from Northern Ireland Category:People from Dungannon Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:People from Ballygawley, County Tyrone