Morris remembered the long-serving principal, Joan Dillon Browne (1912–2009), as "a pioneer in showing what women could achieve, long before it was fashionable to do so.

"[4] Morris was a PE and humanities teacher at the inner-city Sidney Stringer School in Coventry from 1974 to 1992, becoming head of sixth form studies, and was a member of Warwick District Council from 1979 to 1991.

Morris was elected to Parliament in 1992 for Birmingham Yardley, gaining the seat from the Conservatives with a majority of only 162.

She had made a commitment to the then Conservative Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts to resign if the literacy and numeracy targets were not met.

In September 2005, it was announced that she would succeed Lady Kennedy of The Shaws as president of the National Children's Bureau.

[11] Morris is the chair of the medical charity, APS Support UK, for antiphospholipid syndrome[12] and was patron of Hanover Foundations.