Sir Cyril Irvine Patnick OBE (11 October 1929 – 30 December 2012) was a British businessman and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in 1994.Martin Wainwrigh
Obituary: Irvine Patnick
''The Guardian'', 31 December 2012

Early life

The second of four sons born to Aaron Michael Patnick and Bessie (née Levin) Patnick in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, he was educated in Sheffield at the Central Technical School followed by

Sheffield Polytechnic Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate C ...

. A building contractor, Patnick entered politics as a member of

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Contr ...

in 1967 and later of

South Yorkshire County Council The South Yorkshire County Council (SYCC) — also known as South Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council — was the top-tier local government authority for the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire from 1 April 1974 to 31 March 1986. A strategic ...

Parliamentary career

After unsuccessfully contesting Sheffield Hillsborough at the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and 1979 general elections, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

. During his time as an MP he was a Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury and deputy Chairman of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Select committee. He left politics after he lost his seat in the 1997 general election to the

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

Richard Allan. Patnick was on the right wing of the Conservative Party. He was against sanctions on the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

regime in South Africa, voted to reintroduce the death penalty, strongly supported the anti-homosexual

Section 28 Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received R ...

of the

Local Government Act Local Government Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, relating to local government. The Bill for an Act with this short title may have been known ...

and, in a similar vein, opposed reducing the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

for homosexuals. He coined the phrase '

People's Republic of South Yorkshire "People's Republic of South Yorkshire" or "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire" were nicknames often given to South Yorkshire under the left-wing local governments of the 1980s, especially the municipal socialist administration of Sheffield C ...

' in reference to the policies of the

under the direction of

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...

. He was the vice-president of Sheffield's Kingfield Synagogue, life president of Sheffield Jewish Representative Council, and a former national vice-chairman of the British Maccabi sports and youth organisation. Patnick was also the chairman of trustees of The Trust for Research into Freemasonry, a charity established to support the Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

Hillsborough

Patnick was one of the sources for '' The Sun'' newspaper's inaccurate coverage of the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...

in April 1989. In September 2012, the publication of the report by the independent panel investigating the disaster confirmed that "the source for these despicable untruths was a Sheffield news agency reporting conversations with

South Yorkshire Police South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings. T ...

and Irvine Patnick, the then MP for Sheffield Hallam". Earlier, ''Sun'' editor

Kelvin MacKenzie Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of '' The Sun'' in 1981, by which time the publication was established as Britain's largest circulation newspaper. Aft ...

had said of his coverage: "It was a fundamental mistake. The mistake was I believed what an MP said". The ''Daily Express'' also carried the story, under the headline "Police Accuse Drunken Fans" and giving Patnick's views, saying he had told

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, who was being escorted by him on a tour of the grounds after the tragedy, of the "mayhem caused by drunks" and that policemen had told him that they were "hampered, harassed, punched and kicked". After the disclosure of Patnick's role in creating what Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

called an "unjust and untrue narrative that sought to blame the fans", Labour MP John Mann wrote to Cameron asking that Patnick be stripped of his

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

hood for his "shameful and disgusting behaviour". Patnick was also heavily criticised by the families of the dead, with the Hillsborough Justice Campaign stating that "It needs to be remembered that this man vilified Liverpool and was part of a lying machine which shamefully damaged the reputation of those fans." In a statement issued through the Conservative Party on 13 September 2012, Patnick accepted "responsibility for passing such information on without asking further questions. So, many years after this tragic event, I am deeply and sincerely sorry for the part I played in adding to the pain and suffering of the victims' families".

Death

Patnick died on 30 December 2012 in

with his funeral taking place the following day.

References

External links

*
Record in parliament
''TheyWorkForYou'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Patnick, Irvine 1929 births 2012 deaths Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in Sheffield Knights Bachelor Jewish British politicians Officers of the Order of the British Empire Businesspeople from Sheffield Politicians from Sheffield UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 20th-century English businesspeople