Career
Morris was made a life peer in 2004, and has previously been Vice-Chairman of the Conservatives with responsibility for candidates. She is currently Chancellor of the University of Bolton. Prior to entering the House of Lords, Trish Morris was Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for candidates.
She was responsible for several changes in the selection procedure designed to increase the quality and diversity of Parliamentary candidates.
She was nominated for a peerage by the then Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, and entered the House of Lords in June 2004. She joined the Conservative front bench as a Whip in September of that year.
In June 2005 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Children, Young People, Families and Women and in October 2006 became principal opposition spokesman for Education & Skills. Morris relinquished her role as Shadow Minister for Children, Schools & Families at the end of 2008, but remained Shadow Minister for Women and an Opposition Whip.
In November 2009 she featured in the controversy over the selection of Liz Truss as prospective parliamentary candidate for South West Norfolk.
Truss had faced criticism for allegedly not disclosing to the selection committee a past affair with a married Member of Parliament. Morris was quoted supporting her, saying "Liz is a first class candidate", and saying of the affair that "In this day and age that shouldn"t matter". Morris lives in Bolton. Her husband William is a judge.
In her maiden speech in the House of Lords she revealed that she broke her back in a riding accident when she was a teenager.
She is President of the National Benevolent Institution and a trustee of The Disability Partnership and The Transformation Trust. She is co-chair of Women in Public Policy and on the executive committee of the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools.
She joined the Board of Trustees of United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund United Kingdom in 2007. She succeeded Lord Patten as President of Medical Aid for Palestinians after he had resigned the post in June 2011 upon becoming Chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation Trust.
On 27 November 2009 Morris was appointed as the first Chancellor of the University of Bolton, with a three-year term of office beginning on 1 January 2010.