Nigel Farage has led tributes to Daily Express veteran and Brexit campaigner Patrick O’Flynn, who has died aged 59. The former MEP had a successful career at the heart of Westminster, serving as the Express’s political editor and spearheading the newspaper’s campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.
He then turned his hand to politics, joining Nigel Farage’s UKIP as director of communications before being elected an MEP in the 2014 European elections. Mr Farage said he was “so sad to hear of the passing of Patrick O’Flynn”. The Reform UK leader added: “Paddy was a great journalist, a great thinker, a great patriot and a titan of our joint cause. Thank you Paddy.”
Tributes have also flooded in from former colleagues at the Express, including his current-day successor as political editor, Martyn Brown, who described Mr O’Flynn as a “wonderful man”.
He added: “A journalistic legend who was incredibly to kind to me when I first joined the Lobby and, of course, the mastermind of perhaps the most consequential political newspaper campaigns of the past 50 years.”
Julia Hartley-Brewer, who served as political editor of the Sunday Express concurrently with Mr O’Flynn’s tenure at the Express, said she was “absolutely heartbroken” to learn of his death.
Ms Hartley-Brewer described him as “a brilliant colleague at the Express, a staunch Brexiteer and good friend. Most importantly, he was a genuinely lovely man.”
Mr O’Flynn often reflected on the long road to Brexit and the role he played in the fight for Britain’s democracy.
Mr O’Flynn departed UKIP in 2017, citing a disagreement with Mr Farage over the party’s direction. He then joined the Social Democratic Party, becoming its most high-profile supporter.
This evening the SDP said it was “devastated” to learn the news of his passing, branding him a “great journalist, fantastic MEP, true patriot, & most of all a wonderful man, he will be sorely missed.”
In December 2019, just before Britain left the EU in January 2020, he said his decade began by starting the Express campaign to get Britain out, “much to the bemusement of Lobby colleagues and the vast majority of MPs”.
It was then bookended by the moment he had spent so many years campaigning for.
Mr O’Flynn is survived by his wife, Carole Ann, who also wrote for this paper, as well as his son and daughter.