Well, it was a week when independently minded Labour MPs decided to leave the party… Paul Flynn worked as a chemist in the steel industry before he finally won a parliamentary seat, being elected for Newport West in the 1987 General Election. He remained in the seat until his death, a 32-year period that took in a spell as one of the first MPs to have their own website, a love of rabble-rousing (most notably over the topics of abolishing the monarchy and Welsh independence), becoming the oldest front-bencher to speak to parliament in over a century during the last Labour civil war, and a few unfortunate comments about Jews and Israel. There is, of course, no place for that in the modern Labour party.
Flynn was the only MP to not vote in person on Theresa May’s last Brexit bill, so it was clear something was up. His death now leads to the first by-election in our brave new political world.
Paul Flynn
9 February 1935 – 17 February 2019
Died aged 84 (3 picks, 1 joker)