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BBC News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Former East of England MEP Patrick O'Flynn dies, aged 59
Tributes have been paid to the journalist and former UKIP Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Patrick O'Flynn, who has died aged 59.O'Flynn, from Cambridge, served as an MEP for the East of England from 2014 until previously worked as the political editor at the Daily Express and Birmingham Post, and had also written for The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said O'Flynn was "a truly original conservative journalist who grasped the causes of much of the current discontent". Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader and current leader of Reform UK, said: "Paddy was a great journalist, a great thinker, a great patriot and a titan of our joint cause."Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party and MP for North West Essex, said: "I can't quite believe it. My husband and I always enjoyed Patrick's company. "He often messaged me with thoughts on politics. We'd agree on substance then argue over tactics. I teased him about being a secret leftie… but my goodness, he loved this country." O'Flynn was elected as an MEP when UKIP beat Labour and the Conservatives into second and third place in the 2014 European Parliament served as UKIP's economy spokesman until 2015 and also stood as a parliamentary candidate in the former Cambridge constituency in the general election that was UKIP's economics spokesman until 2015 and also held the party's media and sport brief, before quitting in 2018 to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP).In a post on X, the SDP said it was "devastated" to learn of O'Flynn's passing, describing him as "a great journalist, fantastic MEP, true patriot, and most of all a wonderful man". Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Journalist Patrick O'Flynn dies age 59
Former MEP and journalist Patrick O'Flynn has died at the age of 59. Previously a political editor of the Daily Express, Mr O'Flynn was elected as Ukip MEP for the East of England in 2014. Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip's successor, Reform UK, said: 'So sad to hear of the passing of Patrick O'Flynn. 'Paddy was a great journalist, a great thinker, a great patriot and a titan of our joint cause. Thank you Paddy.' He was a parliamentary lobby journalist for more than 20 years. Before the Daily Express he worked for the Birmingham Post and the Sunday Express. Mr O'Flynn was political editor of the Express from the 1990s to 2005 when he was made chief comment editor at the paper. He has also written extensively for the Spectator and the Telegraph. In 2014 he was elected to the European Parliament when Mr Farage's Ukip beat Labour and the Tories into second and third place. He represented the East of England and was the party's economy spokesman until 2015. He stood in the general election of that year for Cambridge, but was not successful. Mr O'Flynn left the Ukip frontbench in 2017, saying the party did not support his centrist economic values, and joined the Social Democratic Party a year later. He leaves a wife, Carole Ann, a life coach who also wrote for the Daily Express. He leaves behind a son and a daughter.
