Matthew Pennycook
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Matthew Thomas Pennycook (born 29 October 1982) is a British politician who has served as
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Greenwich and Woolwich Greenwich and Woolwich is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Matthew Pennycook of the Labour Party. Constituency profile The seat is dominated in the south by expansive and panoramic Green ...
since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning since 2021.


Early life

Pennycook was born on 29 October 1982, and was raised in a single-parent family in South London. He was educated at Beverley Boys Secondary School, a comprehensive school in
New Malden New Malden is an area in South West London, England. It is located mainly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes ...
, London. He joined the Labour Party at the age of nineteen. Pennycook studied History and International Relations at the
London School of Economics and Political Science The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
, graduating with a first-class
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
(BA) degree in 2005. He was awarded the CS MacTaggart Scholarship Prize for best overall degree performance in any subject. He subsequently won a scholarship to attend Balliol College, Oxford, studying for a
Master of Philosophy The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil ...
(MPhil) degree in International Relations.


Early career

While still a student, he volunteered with the
Child Poverty Action Group Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is a UK charity that works to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. History The Group first met on 5 March 1965, at a meeting organised by Harriett C. Wilson. It followed the publication of Brian Abel-Smith ...
and worked with then-Chief Executive,
Kate Green Katherine Anne Green OBE (born 2 May 1960) is a British politician, serving as Greater Manchester's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime from January 2023. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston between 2010 and 2022. A me ...
, who became a Labour MP. Before becoming an MP himself, Pennycook worked for a number of charitable and voluntary organisations including at the Fair Pay Network and the Resolution Foundation where he led on issues relating to welfare reform, low pay and working poverty. He also worked for a while in Parliament as an assistant to Labour MP
Karen Buck Karen Patricia Buck (born 30 August 1958) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westminster North, previously Regent's Park and Kensington North, since 1997. A member of the Labour Party, she was Parliamentary Und ...
. Pennycook was a Labour councillor for Greenwich West from 2010 to 2015, resigning in March 2015 just before the general election. He also served as a trustee of Greenwich Housing Rights and was a school governor at James Wolfe Primary School in West Greenwich. He has written multiple articles for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' about the need for a living wage in the UK and has served on the
Living Wage Foundation The Living Wage Foundation is a campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom which aims to persuade employers to pay a living wage. The organisation was established in 2011, publishes an annual Living Wage figure and for a fee accredits employer ...
's advisory board.


Parliamentary career

In November 2013, he was selected as the official Labour Party candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich, as the sitting MP,
Nick Raynsford Wyvill Richard Nicolls Raynsford (born 28 January 1945), known as Nick Raynsford, is a British politician who served as a government minister from 1997 to 2005. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Wo ...
was retiring. In May 2015, he retained the seat for Labour with a majority of 11,946 votes and a 52.2% share of the vote on a turnout of 63.7%. This was a 3% increase on Nick Raynsford's previous majority five years earlier. He gave his
maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
during a debate on the economy on 4 June 2015. In the
leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...
following Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election, Pennycook endorsed
Yvette Cooper Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Home Secretary since 2021, and previously from 2011 to 2015. She served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and Work and Pen ...
and for the deputy leadership his preference was for Tom Watson. He supported
Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
in the campaign for selection of the candidate for the
2016 London Mayoral election The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016 to elect the Mayor of London, on the same day as the London Assembly election. It was the fifth election to the position of mayor, which was created in 2000 after a referendum in Greate ...
. In July 2015, Pennycook became a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Minister of State for Housing, John Healey MP from 2015, resigning from the position in June 2016. He was one of 161 Labour MPs who backed
Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
in his unsuccessful Labour Party leadership campaign to replace
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
in September 2016. Pennycook campaigned in favour of a "Remain" vote for the 2016 referendum on EU membership and his Greenwich and Woolwich constituency voted 64% to remain. After the referendum results were announced, Pennycook was appointed one of the Shadow Ministers for
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
in October 2016, and, in accordance with the Labour Party whip, voted for the Bill to trigger Article 50. In September 2019, he resigned as shadow Brexit minister in order to campaign actively in favour of holding a second referendum and unequivocally for the UK to stay in the EU. Pennycook returned to the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Minister for Climate Change, following
Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
's victory in the
2020 Labour Party leadership election Labour Party leadership elections were held in the following countries in 2020: * 2020 Labour Party leadership election (Ireland) *2020 Labour Party leadership election (UK) **2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election *2020 Scottish Labour deput ...
. In the December 2021 frontbench reshuffle, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning.


Views

Pennycook has expressed concerns about newly qualified teachers leaving the profession. Over a quarter of teachers who started working in London schools in 2015 had left by November 2017 and in October 2018 it was reported that more than a third of teachers starting work in London leave before four years have passed. Pennycook stated, "The crisis in teacher retention in London did not begin the day before yesterday, yet this Tory government still has no coherent plan to address the problem and no appetite to get to grips with the underlying drivers – workload, stagnant pay, rising living costs and a lack of genuinely affordable housing to rent and buy – that lie behind this worrying trend."


Personal life

Pennycook is married to civil servant Joanna Otterburn and they have two children.https://853.london/2019/11/06/erith-thamesmead-mp-teresa-pearce-thanks-family-in-commons-farewell/


References


External links


Matthew Pennycook
official website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pennycook, Matthew 1982 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politics of the Royal Borough of Greenwich UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford