A Labour Shadow Brexit Minister bowls May an Underarm Wor-Mongering Slow Ball. The Prime Minister, Theresa May, took questions from MPs in the House of Commons on Wednesday 9 May 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew…

Matthew Pennycook

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthew Pennycook MP
Member of Parliament for Greenwich and Woolwich
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 May 2015
Preceded by	Nick Raynsford
Majority	20,714 (39.0%)
Personal details
Born	Matthew Thomas Pennycook 29 October 1982 (age 35) Hammersmith, London, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	London School of Economics Balliol College, Oxford
Website	matthewpennycook.com

Matthew Thomas Pennycook (born 29 October 1982), is a British Labour Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich since May 2015.^[1]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Early life
• 2Early career
• 3Parliamentary career
• 4References
• 5External links

Early life[edit]

Pennycook was raised in a single-parent family in South London. He attended Beverley Boys Secondary School comprehensive in New Malden, before securing a place at the London School of Economics and Political Science to study History and International Relations. He secured a First Class Honours (July 2005) and was awarded the CS MacTaggart Scholarship Prize for best overall degree performance in any subject.^[2] He subsequently won a scholarship to attend Balliol College, Oxford to read for an MPhil in International Relations. He joined the Labour Party at the age of 19.^[3]

Early career[edit]

While still a student, he volunteered with the Child Poverty Action Group working with the then Chief Executive, Kate Green. Before becoming an MP, 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.

Pennycook was a Labour Councillor for Greenwich West from 2010–2015, resigning in March 2015 just before the General Election.^[4] 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 about the need for a living wage in Britain and has served on the Living Wage Foundation‘s advisory board.^[5]

Parliamentary career[edit]

In November 2013, he was selected as the Labour Party’s candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich,^[6] as the sitting MP, Nick Raynsford, was retiring.

In May 2015, he was elected MP with a majority of 11,946 and a 52.2% vote share on a turnout of 63.7%. This was a 3% increase on Nick Raynsford’s previous majority.^[7] He gave his maiden speech in a debate on the economy on 4 June 2015.^[8]

In the leadership election following Labour’s defeat in the 2015 General Election, Pennycook backed Yvette Cooper and for the deputy leadership his preference was for Tom Watson. He backed Sadiq Khan in the campaign for selection of the candidate for the 2016 election for London Mayor.

In July 2015, Pennycook became a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee. He was 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 in his unsuccessful Labour Party leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn in September 2016.^[9][10]

Pennycook campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum^[11] and his Greenwich and Woolwich constituency voted 64% to remain.^[12] After the referendum majority vote to “Leave”, Pennycook was appointed one of the Shadow Ministers for Brexitin October 2016,^[13] and, in accordance with the Labour Party whip, voted for the Bill to trigger Article 50.^[14][15]

Speaker despite the ever-present threat 21:49of death from both Syrian and Russian 21:51air strikes and in the face of smears 21:53and disinformation the rescue workers of 21:56the white helmets have never stopped 21:58saving the lives of their fellow Syrians 22:00last week the Trump administration froze 22:03their US funding with thousands of 22:05civilian lives at risk will the Prime 22:08Minister 22:09step up pledge the government to plug 22:11the funding shortfall that now exists 22:13and ensure these heroic rescue workers 22:16can continue their work can I say to the 22:21honourable gentleman we recognize the 22:23very important and valuable work that 22:25the white helmets are doing they are as 22:26he says doing this in horrendously 22:29difficult conditions they are incredibly 22:31brave to be continuing that work we do 22:33support them we will continue to support 22:35them am i right on will friend the 22:37International Development Secretary will 22:38be looking at the level of that support 22:39in the future https://www.youtube.com/results?searc…