Sir Cyril Irvine Patnick OBE (11 October 1929 – 30 December 2012) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1994.Martin Wainwrigh
Obituary: Irvine Patnick
''The Guardian'', 31 December 2012

Early life

The second of four sons born to Aaron Michael Patnick and Bessie (née Levin) Patnick in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, he was educated in Sheffield at the Central Technical School followed by Sheffield Polytechnic. A building contractor, Patnick entered politics as a member of Sheffield City Council in 1967 and later of South Yorkshire County Council.

Parliamentary career

After unsuccessfully contesting Sheffield Hillsborough at the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

and 1979 general elections, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam in

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

. During his time as an MP he was a Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury and deputy Chairman of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Select committee. He left politics after he lost his seat in the 1997 general election to the Liberal Democrat

Richard Allan Richard Beecroft Allan, Baron Allan of Hallam (born 11 February 1966), is a British politician. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam from 1997 to 2005. He was made a life peer in the 2010 Dissolution Honour ...

. Patnick was on the right wing of the Conservative Party. He was against sanctions on the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

regime in South Africa, voted to reintroduce the death penalty, strongly supported the anti-homosexual

Section 28 Section 28 refers to a part of the Local Government Act 1988, which stated that Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with t ...

of the

Local Government Act Local Government Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, relating to local government. The Bill for an Act with this short title may have been know ...

and, in a similar vein, opposed reducing the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to Human sexual activity, sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is un ...

for homosexuals. He coined the phrase ' People's Republic of South Yorkshire' in reference to the policies of the Sheffield City Council under the direction of

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Employment from 1997 to 2001, Home Secretary from 2001 to 2004 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2005. ...

. He was the vice-president of Sheffield's Kingfield Synagogue, life president of Sheffield Jewish Representative Council, and a former national vice-chairman of the British Maccabi sports and youth organisation. Patnick was also the chairman of trustees of The Trust for Research into Freemasonry, a charity established to support the Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

Hillsborough controversy

Patnick was one of the sources for ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' newspaper's inaccurate coverage of the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

in April 1989. In September 2012, the publication of the report by the independent panel investigating the disaster confirmed that "the source for these despicable untruths was a Sheffield news agency reporting conversations with South Yorkshire Police and Irvine Patnick, the then MP for Sheffield Hallam". Earlier, ''Sun'' editor

Kelvin MacKenzie Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English News media, media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun'' in 1981, by which time the publication had been established as Br ...

had said of his coverage: "It was a fundamental mistake. The mistake was I believed what an MP said". The ''Daily Express'' also carried the story, under the headline "Police Accuse Drunken Fans" and giving Patnick's views, saying he had told

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

, who was being escorted by him on a tour of the grounds after the tragedy, of the "mayhem caused by drunks" and that policemen had told him that they were "hampered, harassed, punched and kicked". Following the disclosure of Patnick's role in creating what Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

called an "unjust and untrue narrative that sought to blame the fans", Labour MP John Mann wrote to Cameron asking that Patnick be stripped of his

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

hood for his "shameful and disgusting behaviour". Patnick was also heavily criticised by the families of the dead, with the Hillsborough Justice Campaign stating that "It needs to be remembered that this man vilified Liverpool and was part of a lying machine which shamefully damaged the reputation of those fans." In a statement issued through the Conservative Party on 13 September 2012, Patnick accepted "responsibility for passing such information on without asking further questions. So, many years after this tragic event, I am deeply and sincerely sorry for the part I played in adding to the pain and suffering of the victims' families".

Honours

Patnick was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

1981 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1981 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

, and

in 1994.

Death

Patnick died on 30 December 2012 in

with his funeral taking place the following day.

References

External links

*
Record in parliament
''TheyWorkForYou'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Patnick, Irvine 1929 births 2012 deaths Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Sheffield Knights Bachelor Jewish British politicians Officers of the Order of the British Empire Businesspeople from Sheffield Politicians from Sheffield UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 20th-century English businesspeople