LONDON (AP) — Britain’s ruling Labour Party has suspended one of its lawmakers after he was arrested in connection with an investigation into allegations of rape and child sex offenses.
Labour suspended Dan Norris, 65, who was elected to Parliament during last year’s general election. The action means Norris, who represents North East Somerset and Hanham, will no longer be part of the Labour caucus, though he remains a member of the House of Commons.
Norris is also the mayor of the West of England, a regional authority that controls issues such as planning and transportation in an area that includes Bristol, Bath and the surrounding countryside. He was elected to the post in 2017 but is due to step down after local elections in May.
“Dan Norris MP was immediately suspended by the Labour Party upon being informed of his arrest," the party said in a statement released on Saturday. “We cannot comment further while the police investigation is ongoing.”
Avon and Somerset Police said that a man in his 60s was arrested on Friday and released on conditional bail. Police in England don’t normally identify criminal suspects by name until they have been formally charged.
“In December 2024, we received a referral from another police force relating to alleged non-recent child sex offenses having been committed against a girl," the force said. “Most of the offenses are alleged to have occurred in the 2000s but we’re also investigating an alleged offense of rape from the 2020s."
Norris, whose arrest was first reported by the Sun on Sunday and the Mail on Sunday, previously served in Parliament from 1997 to 2010. He was an assistant whip under Prime Minister Tony Blair and a junior minister under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
FILE - Lawmaker Dan Norris looks on in London, May 7, 2024. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP, file)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Trump administration must work to bring back a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency appeal.
The court acted in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered Abrego Garcia, now being held in a notorious Salvadoran prison, returned to the United States by midnight Monday.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the court said in an unsigned order with no noted dissents.
It comes after a string of rulings on the court's emergency docket where the conservative majority has at least partially sided with Trump amid a wave of lower court orders slowing the president's sweeping agenda.
In Thursday's case, Chief Justice John Roberts had already pushed back Xinis' deadline. The justices also said that her order must now be clarified to make sure it doesn’t intrude into executive branch power over foreign affairs, since Abrego Garcia is being held abroad. The court said the Trump administration should also be prepared to share what steps it has taken to try to get him back — and what more it could potentially do.
The administration claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, though he has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. His attorneys said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.
The administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador, but argued that it no longer could do anything about it.
The court’s liberal justices said the administration should have hastened to correct “its egregious error” and was “plainly wrong” to suggest it could not bring him home.
“The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, joined by her two colleagues.
Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said the ordeal has been an “emotional rollercoaster” for their family and the entire community.
“I am anxiously waiting for Kilmar to be here in my arms, and in our home putting our children to bed, knowing this nightmare is almost at its end. I will continue fighting until my husband is home,” she said.
One of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenburg, said “tonight, the rule of law prevailed," and he encouraged the government to "stop wasting time and get moving.”
In the district court, Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest Abrego Garcia and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless.” There is little to no evidence to support a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, Xinis wrote.
The 29-year-old was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.
He had a permit from the Homeland Security Department to legally work in the U.S. and was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said. His wife is a U.S. citizen.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant DHS secretary for public affairs, said Thursday that the justices' order for clarification from the lower court was a win for the administration. “We look forward to continuing to advance our position in this case,” she said.
An immigration judge had previously barred the U.S. from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in 2019, finding that he faced likely persecution by local gangs.
A Justice Department lawyer conceded in a court hearing that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Pam Bondi later removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.
Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Rebecca Santata contributed to this report.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
