Paul Flynn

Paul Flynn was the MP for Newport West from 1987 until his death in 2019. In 2016, aged eighty-one, he served as shadow Secretary of State for Wales and shadow Leader of the House of Commons, making him the oldest MP to hold a shadow Cabinet position in over a century. Described by the Welsh First Minister as a giant of the Welsh Labour movement, he was hailed by the Prime Minister as an outstanding parliamentarian and a tireless campaigner. The late political sketchwriter Simon Hoggart referred to him as the thinking man's Dennis Skinner.