1. Matthew Thomas Pennycook was born on 29 October 1982 and is a British Labour Party politician who was elected the Member of Parliament for Greenwich and Woolwich in 2015.
20 Facts About Matthew Pennycook
1. 2.
Matthew Pennycook was appointed Minister of State for Housing and Planning in July 2024.
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Matthew Pennycook was born on 29 October 1982 in Hammersmith, and was raised in a single-parent family in South London.
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Matthew Pennycook was educated at Beverley Boys Secondary School, a comprehensive school in New Malden, London.
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Matthew Pennycook joined the Labour Party at the age of nineteen.
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Matthew Pennycook was awarded the CS MacTaggart Scholarship Prize for the best overall degree performance in any subject.
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Matthew Pennycook subsequently won a scholarship to attend Balliol College, Oxford, studying for a Master of Philosophy degree in International Relations.
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Matthew Pennycook worked for a while in Parliament as an assistant to Labour MP Karen Buck.
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Matthew Pennycook was a Labour councillor for Greenwich West from 2010 to 2015, resigning in March 2015 just before the general election.
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Matthew Pennycook served as a trustee of Greenwich Housing Rights and was a school governor at James Wolfe Primary School in West Greenwich.
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Matthew Pennycook 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.
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Matthew Pennycook gave his maiden speech in the House of Commons during a debate on the economy on 4 June 2015.
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Matthew Pennycook supported Sadiq Khan in the campaign for selection of the candidate for the 2016 London Mayoral election.
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In July 2015, Matthew Pennycook became a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee.
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Matthew Pennycook served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Minister of State for Housing, John Healey MP from 2015, resigning from the position in June 2016.
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Matthew Pennycook was one of 161 Labour MPs who backed Owen Smith in his unsuccessful Labour Party leadership campaign to replace Jeremy Corbyn in September 2016.
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In October 2018, Matthew Pennycook expressed concerns about newly qualified teachers leaving the profession.
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Matthew Pennycook returned to the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Minister for Climate Change, following Keir Starmer's victory in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.
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In May 2021, Matthew Pennycook announced his opposition to a 1,500-home development project in his constituency over concerns about the height of its planned high rises.
20.
Matthew Pennycook is married to civil servant Joanna Otterburn and they have two children.