Patrick James O'Flynn (29 August 1965 – 20 May 2025) was an English journalist and

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SDP) politician who served as

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) for the

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from

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. He was elected for the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

(UKIP) but defected to the

in November 2018. He was previously political editor at the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

''.

Early life and journalism

O'Flynn read economics at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, graduating in 1987. He subsequently received a diploma in journalism from

City, University of London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" an ...

. He then worked as chief political commentator and then political editor at the ''

''. From 2019, O'Flynn frequently wrote for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

''.

Political career

O'Flynn was the

spokesperson on the economy until 19 May 2015. He was the UKIP candidate in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

at the general election in 2015 and came fifth, with 5.2 per cent of the vote. Afterwards he described UKIP leader

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage ( ; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton (UK Parliament constituency), Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 20 ...

as "snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive". O'Flynn was the running-mate for Lisa Duffy in the September 2016 UK Independence Party leadership election. He left the UKIP frontbench in July 2017, believing that the party no longer supported his

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

economic policies. He joined the

in November 2018. He cited UKIP leader Gerard Batten's appointment of Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) as an adviser as a key reason for his departure from the party. He said of his decision to join the SDP: "like many on the communitarian wing of KIP I have decided to join the resurgent SDP, which campaigned for Brexit during the referendum and espouses broad and moderate pro-nation state political values that I – and I believe many of our voters from 2014 – will be delighted to endorse." In defecting, O'Flynn became the first MEP to sit in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

for the SDP (though in 1984 Michael Gallagher MEP had joined the original SDP). O'Flynn stood as the SDP candidate in the 2019 Peterborough by-election, but received only 135 votes (0.4 per cent), and lost to Lisa Forbes. O'Flynn narrowly avoided a repeat of the 1990 Bootle by-election result by beating the Monster Raving Loony Party candidate, who polled 112. In April 2021, O'Flynn started the Snap, a podcast with Michael Heaver.

Personal life and death

O'Flynn and his wife, Carole Ann, who was a life coach and also a ''Daily Express'' writer, had a son and a daughter. Shortly after being diagnosed with

liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...

, he died in London on 20 May 2025, at the age of 59.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OFlynn, Patrick 1965 births 2025 deaths Alumni of City, University of London Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Daily Express people English people of Irish descent MEPs for England 2014–2019 Politicians from Cambridge Mass media people from Cambridge Social Democratic Party (UK, 1990–present) MEPs UK Independence Party MEPs UK Independence Party parliamentary candidates English Eurosceptics British political candidates Deaths from liver cancer