Family, friends and colleagues of Patrick O'Flynn, the former Daily Express Political Editor and Brexit champion, gathered for a moving memorial service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street, Central London, on Thursday. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage joined past and current editors, newspaper colleagues and politicians to pay tribute.
Patrick, a father of two who is survived by his wife Carole Ann Rice, died of liver cancer in May last year aged just 59. He was hailed for his intelligence, political acumen and essential decency, with his lifelong loves being his family, politics and The Jam.
Colleagues remember a mentor and friend
Political columnist Liam Halligan told the service: “Even his formidable combination of both political and economic expertise was trumped by his superlative journalistic asset – his instinctive feel, depressingly rare among journalists these days, for public sentiment and the national mood.
“Patrick had strong opinions but they were built on research and observation, rather than ideology or dogma. His views were heartfelt and firmly held – but they never prevented him from giving others a fair hearing or thinking he had nothing to learn... “He stands out as one of my earliest and most important journalistic friends and mentors.”
The seeds of Brexit
In 2010, as chief political correspondent of the Express, Patrick suggested to then editor Peter Hill that the paper should campaign for the UK to leave Europe. “The EU was failing and nothing good for Britain was going to emerge from it,” he would recall. “I knew our readers were intensely Eurosceptic. Frankly, they did not like being ruled from Brussels.” Thus were the seeds of Brexit sown.
Former UKIP deputy chair Suzanne Evans described Patrick as “so well loved and widely respected – one of our brightest journalists and politicians, and one of the most gentlemanly and gutsy men there’s ever been”. She added: “Through the good times and bad, Patrick was my metaphorical seatbelt, my rock. There aren’t many people who despite never being an MP, when they die, get mentioned in dispatches in Parliament, eulogised by numerous former Prime Ministers – probably some future ones too – the Speaker of the House of Commons, and other of the great and good too numerous to mention. But Patrick deserved every one of those mighty accolades.”
A service of music and readings
Family friend James Farquharson spoke warmly about getting to know Patrick and read from Moby Dick. The choir of St Bride's brought congregants to tears with a stirring rendition of Paul Weller's You're the best thing.
