MP Dan Norris, representing North East Somerset and Hanham, has not voted in Parliament since July 1, following a police announcement that charges were being considered against him. Suspended from the Labour Party after his arrest in April 2025 on suspicion of rape and related offences, Norris had been voting via proxy through the Labour whips until that date.
Police investigations, which have remained anonymous regarding Norris’s identity until recently, involve serious allegations spanning from the 2000s through the 2020s, including rape, sexual assault, voyeurism, and upskirting against multiple women. Norris has firmly denied all accusations.
After his arrest, Parliament barred Norris from entering under a risk-based exclusion policy designed for MPs suspected of violent or sexual offences. Despite this, he continued working for his constituents by handling casework, submitting written questions, and exercising his voting rights through a proxy. However, since the police passed his case file to the Crown Prosecution Service in early July, Sir Nicholas Dakin, the government whip who cast Norris’s proxy votes, has not done so again.
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Norris remains active in Parliament in a limited capacity, submitting written questions on various issues such as suspended driving licences and proposals to harness geothermal energy from former coal mines in Somerset. Written questions are one of the few parliamentary tools available to MPs who cannot physically attend.
Under current rules, proxy voting for MPs is typically granted up to seven months but can be extended indefinitely in multiples of seven months and is allowed for circumstances like maternity leave, long-term illness, or risk-based exclusion. Norris’s history shows frequent use of proxy voting until the July 1 cutoff.
With no votes cast on his behalf since then, the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency effectively has no parliamentary votes. This lack of voting presence makes little practical difference given Labour’s substantial majority in the House of Commons, and Norris’s proxy votes consistently aligned with party lines.
Since his arrest, public pressure has mounted for Norris to resign. A constituent-driven petition launched in September 2025 has garnered over 4,000 signatures, expressing concern about his ability to represent the area effectively despite the principle of innocent until proven guilty.
Currently, constituents cannot remove Norris from office unless he is sentenced to prison for more than 12 months, convicted of parliamentary expenses fraud, or suspended from the House of Commons for over 10 days—none of which have occurred. Risk-based exclusion does not equate to formal suspension.
Dan Norris previously served as the MP for Wansdyke from 1997 until 2010 before losing the seat to Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg. Norris regained the neighboring North East Somerset and Hanham seat in the 2024 election but was arrested less than a year into his new term.