Who is Alex Norris MP?

A few blank faces greeted the appointment of Alex Norris MP as lord chancellor and justice secretary. Norris is hardly a household name and his hitherto modest ministerial career has contained few portents of a star in the making. Some lawyers may gloomily conclude that this eye-catching promotion reflects the lowly rung on the Cabinet ladder that the position of lord chancellor now occupies.

More instructive clues to Norris’s elevation lie in his background. Like Burnham, the 42-year-old is a former municipal worthy, also of the ‘soft left’, having spent six years as a Nottingham city councillor. He is also a former UNISON trade union organiser.

A Mancunian alumnus of Manchester Grammar School, Norris moved to the Midlands city permanently after studying politics and history at Nottingham University. He entered parliament as MP for Nottingham North in 2017 as one of the Corbyn intake, after Labour did better than expected in that year’s general election. Like Burnham, he supported Lisa Nandy in the 2020 Labour leadership election.

Until yesterday, Norris was Home Office minister responsible for border security and asylum. He entered government in 2024 as parliamentary under-secretary with responsibilities including local growth, building safety and fire policy, at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

According to the BBC, he is also a keen runner and supports Manchester City.

Norris is not wholly unknown to the legal profession’s leaders. Some months ago he accompanied Bar chair Kirsty Brimelow KC on a visit to Nottingham Crown Court. ‘He spent time and engaged with and listened to barristers in the robing room. He also saw the court’s disrepair,’ Brimelow said on social media.

Recently I met with working barristers as well as the Chair and other leaders from the Bar Council, for a visit to Nottingham Crown Court. It was incredibly valuable to hear directly from the front line about what support they need from the government. pic.twitter.com/5kQq8YCEiC

— Alex Norris MP (@AlexJJNorris) April 28, 2026

Norris is the fifth non-lawyer to hold the role of Lord Chancellor after Conservatives Chris Grayling, Michael Gove, Liz Truss and David Lidington. Since then, there have been seven lawyers.

Remarkably little media commentary exists on Norris’s prospects for political high office.

Political intelligence website Beyond the Vote notes that he is a 100% party-line voter with no rebel votes on record. His stance profile ‘marks him as strongly pro-workers’-rights (88%) and pro-progressive-taxation (100%), consistent with Labour’s current legislative direction’.

It adds: ‘Compared to the average Labour MP, he sits noticeably further toward assisted dying access (+31 percentage points above the party average) and is more aligned with energy security and anti-fossil-fuel positions.’