Matthew Pennycook

Matthew Pennycook
MP
Member of Parliament
for Greenwich and Woolwich
Assumed office
8 May 2015
Preceded by Nick Raynsford
Majority 20,714 (39.0%)
Personal details
Born Matthew Thomas Pennycook
(1982-10-29) 29 October 1982
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]

Early life

Pennycook born on 29 October 1982,[2] and was raised in a single-parent family in South London. He was educated at Beverley Boys Secondary School, a comprehensive school in New Malden, London. He studied History and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, graduating with a first-class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 2005.[2] He was awarded the CS MacTaggart Scholarship Prize for best overall degree performance in any subject.[3] He subsequently won a scholarship to attend Balliol College, Oxford, studying for a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in International Relations. He joined the Labour Party at the age of nineteen.[4]

Early career

While still a student, he volunteered with the Child Poverty Action Group and worked with 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.[5] 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 the UK and has served on the Living Wage Foundation's advisory board.[6]

Parliamentary career

In November 2013, he was selected as the official Labour Party candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich,[7] as the sitting MP, Nick Raynsford was retiring.

In May 2015, he retained the seat for Labour with a majority of 11,946 votes and a 52.2% share of the vote on a turnout of 63.7%. This was a 3% increase on Nick Raynsford's previous majority five years earlier.[8] He gave his maiden speech in the House of Commons during a debate on the economy on 4 June 2015.[9]

In the leadership election following Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election, Pennycook endorsed Yvette Cooper and for the deputy leadership his preference was for Tom Watson. He supported Sadiq Khan in the campaign for selection of the candidate for the 2016 London Mayoral election.

In July 2015, Pennycook became a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee. He served as 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 campaign to replace Jeremy Corbyn in September 2016.[10][11]

Pennycook campaigned in favour of a "Remain" vote for the 2016 referendum on EU membership[12] and his Greenwich and Woolwich constituency voted 64% to remain.[13] After the referendum results were announced, Pennycook was appointed one of the Shadow Ministers for Brexit in October 2016,[14] and, in accordance with the Labour Party whip, voted for the Bill to trigger Article 50.[15][16]

Views

Pennycook is concerned about newly qualified teachers leaving the profession. Over a quarter of teachers who started working in London schools in 2015 had left by November 2017 and more than a third of teachers starting work in London now leave before four years have passed. Pennycook stated, “The crisis in teacher retention in London did not begin the day before yesterday, yet this Tory government still has no coherent plan to address the problem and no appetite to get to grips with the underlying drivers – workload, stagnant pay, rising living costs and a lack of genuinely affordable housing to rent and buy – that lie behind this worrying trend.”[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Greenwich & Woolwich parliamentary constituency – Election 2015 – BBC News". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Pennycook, Matthew Thomas". Who's Who 2018. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2017. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.283983. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  3. ↑ http://www.lse.ac.uk/aboutLSE/keyFacts/LSEDigest/pdf/LSEDigest2004-05-Version26Mar15.pdf
  4. ↑ "Matthew Pennycook – The Labour Party". Labour.org.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  5. ↑ http://www.greenwich.co.uk/news/11290-cllr-pennycook-announces-resignation-ahead-general-election/
  6. ↑ "Matthew Pennycook". The Guardian. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  7. ↑ http://www.matthewpennycook.com
  8. ↑ "UK Polling Report". UK Polling Report. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 04 Jun 2015 (pt 0003)". www.publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  10. ↑ "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith | LabourList". LabourList | Labour's biggest independent grassroots e-network. 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2017-10-12.
  11. ↑ "Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016". Wikipedia. 2017-09-21.
  12. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35616946
  13. ↑ Rosenbaum, Martin (6 February 2017). "Local voting figures shed new light on EU referendum". BBC News.
  14. ↑ "Labour's Shadow Frontbench appointments". Labour Press. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  15. ↑ "Matthew Pennycook MP, Greenwich and Woolwich - TheyWorkForYou". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Votes on motion "That the Bill be now read the Third time"". Hansard. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  17. ↑ Teacher crisis hits London as nearly half quit within five years The Guardian
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Nick Raynsford		 Member of Parliament
for Greenwich and Woolwich
2015–present		 Incumbent
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