Hundreds gathered in Newport today to pay their final respects to veteran MP Paul Flynn.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, First Minister Mark Drakeford and Newport City Council leader Debbie Wilcox were among those who joined family, friends, and fond constituency members for the funeral service at St Woolos Cathedral on Friday morning.
A wicker coffin, draped with a Welsh flag and a small arrangement of white roses, was carried into the packed cathedral just after 11am.
Many attendees listened from a vestibule at the back of the cathedral as warm tributes were made to Mr Flynn as a friend, colleague and family member.
Taking time out from a chaotic week in Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn addressed the congregation.
Paying tribute to his friend, Mr Corbyn said: “Paul was somebody who was very special in every conceivable way in his life, in his work as a member of parliament, and in his humour and in his warmth.
“I loved the character of him and the way in which he spoke up for Newport, spoke up for causes that weren’t necessarily terribly popular and the zany sense of interest that he had.
“He was a wonderful guy in so many ways. He was also very proud of coming from Newport, coming from Wales, and I see him in the tradition of Aneurin Bevan.”
He added: “Paul was never besotted by power. He was only there to serve the people that had put him there and to serve the principals he had adopted in childhood and stuck to all his life.”
Among Mr Flynn’s parliamentary colleagues in attendance were MP for Newport East Jessica Morden, seceretary of state for Wales Alun Cairns, Nick Smith MP, and Carolyn Harris MP.
Welsh Assembly member for Newport West Jayne Bryant, First Minister Mark Drakeford, Rhiannon Passmore AM, and Newport City Council leader Debbie Wilcox also attended.
Jayne Bryant told the congregation: “Paul Flynn was a giant of the Labour movement, a tenacious campaigner, and an exceptional parliamentarian.
“Best of all he was kind, inspiring and so much fun to be around.
“Never bland, or boring, Paul proved that politics was about people and wanted young people to be as passionate about it as he was.”
Mr Flynn served as a Newport borough councillor for nine years, and a Gwent county councillor for eight years until 1982, before winning back the Newport West parliamentary constituency from Conservative MP Mark Robson in 1987, a seat he held until he died on February 17, 2019.
During a long and distinguished career as an MP, he served on the front and back benches for the Labour Party and campaigned on a number of issues close to his heart.
As a maverick backbencher, he fought his own party on the Iraq war and, in 2011, vented his frustration that he could not question Prince Andrew’s role as trade envoy in Parliament.
Later in life, he embarked on a fierce campaign for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, introducing a Private Members Bill to the Commons calling for a change to the law as recently as last October.
In the latter months of last year, the Labour Party confirmed he would not be standing for re-election after 32 years in his seat, and in a letter to party members and officers, Mr Flynn said that he had been confined to his bed. He died on February 17 earlier this year.
