Matthew Pennycook

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.

Early life
Pennycook born on 29 October 1982, 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. He was awarded the CS MacTaggart Scholarship Prize for best overall degree performance in any subject. 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 19.

Early career
While still a student, he volunteered with the Child Poverty Action Group working with the 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. 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 Britain and has served on the Living Wage Foundation's advisory board.

Parliamentary career
In November 2013, he was selected as the Labour Party's candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich, as the sitting MP, Nick Raynsford, was retiring.

In May 2015, he was elected MP with a majority of 11,946 and a 52.2% vote share on a turnout of 63.7%. This was a 3% increase on Nick Raynsford's previous majority. He gave his maiden speech in a debate on the economy on 4 June 2015.

In the leadership election following Labour's defeat in the 2015 General Election, Pennycook backed Yvette Cooper and for the deputy leadership his preference was for Tom Watson. He backed Sadiq Khan in the campaign for selection of the candidate for the 2016 election for London Mayor.

In July 2015, Pennycook became a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee. He was 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 challenge to Jeremy Corbyn in September 2016.

Pennycook campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum and his Greenwich and Woolwich constituency voted 64% to remain. After the referendum majority vote to "Leave", Pennycook was appointed one of the Shadow Ministers for Brexit in October 2016, and, in accordance with the Labour Party whip, voted for the Bill to trigger Article 50.