Steven Norris
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Steven Norris is a British Conservative politician. He was the official Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in 2000 and 2004, and came second on both occasions.
Steven Norris was born in Liverpool on February 24 1945. He was elected on to Berkshire County Council in 1977. He became the Member of Parliament for Oxford East in 1983. After losing that seat at the next general election, he re-entered the House of Commons at a by-election for Epping Forest. He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary for William Waldegrave at the Department of Environment, Nicholas Ridley as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Kenneth Baker as Home Secretary before being promoted to Minister of State for Transport by John Major in 1992. British tabloid newspapers uncovered in 1996 that Norris had five mistresses simultaneously as well as a wife at a time when the Government was running its Back to Basics campaign. The relevations earned him the moniker Steve 'Nobber' Norris. Norris has now weathered the storm more successfully than some of his fellow ministers (see e.g. David Mellor, Tim Yeo) who faced similar tabloid accusations of double standards on morality. He divorced his wife and married his fourth mistress Emma Courtney in 2000, with whom he had a son Harry. In 1996 he published his autobiography 'Changing Trains' which commented on these accusations. His admirers dubbed it 'Changing Dames'. He stood down from Parliament at the 1997 General Election to pursue business interests.
Norris is known in particular for his interest in public transport. He is, or has been, Chairman of the National Cycling Strategy Board, Director General of the Road Haulage Association and President of the Motor Cycle Industry Association. Following Jeffrey Archer's withdrawal from the elections for London's mayor in 2000, Norris became the Conservative party candidate. He came in runner-up behind current mayor Ken Livingstone. In February 2003 he was elected Conservative candidate for the next mayoral elections in 2004. His platform included promises to open the tube until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and to scrap the London congestion charge.
On November 25 2003 the engineering group Jarvis, which operates many public transport and other public service projects and best known as the contractor with maintenance responsibility in the Potters Bar rail crash, announced that Norris would become its chairman following the resignation of Paris Moayedi.
He came second to Ken Livingstone in the 2004 election. Even with his first and second preference votes combined, he was beaten by Livingstone with just first preference votes.