Norris was educated at Chipping Sodbury Comprehensive School and the University of Sussex, where he read a Master's in Social Work. He is a former teacher and child protection officer having trained with the NSPCC.
Norris first stood for parliament in the constituency of Northavon in 1987, losing against the Conservative incumbent, Sir John Cope. In 1992, he was the Labour candidate for Wansdyke, leapfrogging the Liberal Democrats to take Labour from third to second place against the Conservative incumbent, Jack Aspinwall. He contested the Wansdyke seat once more in the election of 1997, and this time succeeded in taking a traditionally safe Conservative seat by 4,799 votes, overturning a majority of 11,770 votes. Whilst Norris went on to increase his majority to 5,613 in the election of 2001, the election of 2005 saw his lead over the Conservatives fall to 1,839. Due to changes made by the Boundary Commission for England, the Wansdyke constituency was abolished at the 2010 election. Norris stood instead for North East Somerset, but was defeated by Jacob Rees-Mogg. During his time in Parliament, Norris was an assistant whip from 2001 to 2003. In July 2007, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, a role he had previously performed for Secretary of State for Northern IrelandPeter Hain. In the reshuffle of June 2009 Norris entered the Government as a minister for the first time, becoming Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As a backbencher, prior to taking on a PPS role in June 2006, Norris had the highest voting record of any MP, attending 97% of all votes. Norris' voting records show that he is in favour of: crime reduction measures; a tougher line being taken against child sexual abuse; the smoking ban; the introduction of ID cards, rather than a border police force in the United Kingdom; introducing additional GP hours to allow patient access during evenings and at weekends, patient choice of hospital, and cutting NHS waiting list times; introducing foundation hospitals; student top up fees; anti terrorism laws and migration controls; the Iraq war; not having an investigation into the Iraq war; replacing trident; the hunting ban and animal welfare measures; and gay rights. Norris was one of just 25 out of the 121 MPs who voted on Freedom of Information laws supporting its application to MPs' allowances at the Third Reading vote on 18 May 2007. Norris has a particular interest in child safety and regularly campaigns against child sexual abuse, having co written a free booklet on its prevention. He also co wrote, produced and distributed a booklet aimed at giving practical advice to children across the United Kingdom about dealing with bullying entitled Don't Bully Me. Norris was on the speaker list for the New Labourpressure groupProgress.
Later career
Following his defeat at the general election of 2010, Norris turned his attention to working for former Foreign Secretary David Miliband in his ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Labour leadership. In May 2012, Norris was shortlisted to be the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of Bristol, but did not win the selection. Norris has been very critical of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party's handling of antisemitism, stating in an op-ed for the Bristol Post, "today’s Labour leadership seems to have become highly uncomfortable in opposing racism when it is directed at Jewish people." Norris is an ambassador for the children's charity Kidscape. In 2014, Norris was appointed to the board of the Snowdon Trust, a charity that supports students with physical disabilities.
