The unanticipated and deeply sad news of Patrick O’Flynn’s death is a blow to so many – not just to his close family but also to those in the world of politics and journalism and for many throughout the country.

I first met Patrick in a pub with David Goodhart in 2018 and got to know him well in the following eight years throughout our – sometimes forlorn – efforts to revive the Social Democratic party. As a prominent and influential Eurosceptic political journalist – and Ukip MEP – we were delighted when Patrick joined us. I personally was thrilled. And since Patrick was better known and far more experienced than myself, naturally, I asked him to lead the party. Alas, Paddy was far too wise to accept, and when he returned from his stint in Brussels he sensibly concentrated on rebuilding his career as a political journalist – although he pluckily stood for the SDP in the 2019 Peterborough by-election and later chaired the party’s London branch.

Patrick had a talent for bringing people together and – for a serial political party member – he remained surprisingly non-partisan, particularly if he felt the national interest was at stake. Paddy made plain his fondness for the present Tory party leader to me on numerous occasions and would often back politicians in other parties when justified. He was crucial in helping the SDP negotiate an – ultimately underwhelming – electoral pact with Reform UK for the 2024 general election. The choice of St Ermin’s Hotel – a favoured location for MI6 spy training – for the early clandestine meetings with Richard Tice may well have been Patrick’s idea.

Rectitude was, however, Paddy’s overriding quality. He was politically sound, sensible and correct in so many of his prognostications. I think that was why editors loved him and why his journalistic output was so prolific. His political analysis was so often spot on – but he was also brave. He would stubbornly hold a difficult line – even against fashionable opposition – if he felt it to be right. His early championing of the cause to leave the European Union while political editor at the Express is one such example and one which has now become legendary in the Eurosceptic pantheon. It was influential – pivotal even – as the first national newspaper to back the cause. Patrick would often take a personal stand against what he perceived as outright wrongness. I recall with fondness his refusal to renew his season tickets at West Ham after the side foolishly ‘took the knee’ during BLM mania in 2020.

Patrick told me he was gravely ill in early April when I called him from my home in Orkney for one of our regular catch ups. At the time I was so taken aback I had few words to say. I wrote to him shortly afterwards to thank him for all he had done for the SDP and to remind him that – in all probability – the party would not exist today but for his decision to join us in 2018 while serving as an MEP. We all feel a huge sense of loss and will miss him deeply – but somehow I know that Patrick’s influence will live on.

Many people reading this will remember Patrick for his journalism at The Spectator, the Express and the Telegraph, and for his crucial role – with Nigel Farage and Suzanne Evans – in Ukip’s breakthrough election campaign in 2015. Friends and loved ones will talk of Patrick’s love of football, of his devotion to the 1970s-80s mod band The Jam, and of his holiday home in Weymouth which he enjoyed with his family at weekends.

Patrick was, above all, a fine journalist, a true gentleman and one of the nicest people you would ever meet in public life.

The distant echo – of faraway voices boarding faraway trains. To take them home to
the ones that they love and who love them forever.

So long Paddy.