There are only around 2,000 Jews left in Merseyside, but one of them, fresh-faced, 36-year-old Matthew Patrick, was elected as the new MP for Wirral West in July’s general election.
The most surprising fact about the new parliamentarian is not his faith, but the football team he supports.
Born and brought up in Birkenhead, he does not support Liverpool or Everton (or even low-league Tranmere Rovers) but West Midlands-based West Bromwich Albion.
“We are going to go up next season, I'm confident of that,” he asserted.
What made him support a team nearly 100 miles away from his home town?
“I'm a glory hunter,” he joked.
“They’re my dad's team. My parents had a conversation when I was a child. And my mum said, ‘it's really important that our kids are brought up in the Jewish faith’. My dad said, ‘that's fine, can they be West Brom fans?’, so my fate was sealed.”
But it was those long car rides down the M6 to the Hawthorns Stadium with his father that first ignited his passion for politics. He said: “We'd drive down to West Brom and just chat about everything. And I definitely got politically interested through that. I think the New Labour government did so many amazing things. I saw them change things for the better for my family. And I thought Tony Blair managed to explain politics in a way that was accessible to a kid from Birkenhead.”
As he grew up, the importance of his Jewish identity “increased in a way that a kid I couldn't have imagined”.
Patrick recalled an incident during the EU referendum campaign in which, after hearing an antisemitic comment, he tried to engage with the person who made it in the hope of getting them to see the error of their ways.
“I explained, ‘well actually, I'm Jewish’. And, how naive, because I didn't get the apology that I expected, I got a death threat.
“I think that pushes you as well to be say, hang on, I don't go to synagogue, but I’m increasingly aware that I’m Jewish.” That said, his Judaism is more “cultural” than religious. “I'm offending my rabbi terribly here in not advocating going even on High Holy Days,” he said humorously.
Labour MP Matthew Patrick with former Labour MP Louise Ellman. Credit: Matthew Patrick, X/Twitter
“Whether you choose to go to synagogue or not, you are Jewish. And it’s an important part of my life, because it's an important part of my family's life,” he said.
His favourite Jewish food? There is a lot: “Bagel with egg mayo, my mum’s latkes and the cinnamon balls she used to make for Pesach. They're top tier and she wouldn't forgive me if I didn't get that in. They’re just amazing.”
Although he described “really difficult times” under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of his party, he said “it was important to fight for the values and ideals that I hold dear” rather than resign from the party, though he understood why some people did.
One month since being elected to office, he is still getting to grips with the quirks of British parliamentary democracy. He said: “I now spend my working life in London in a palace, which has lots of people wearing white ties and opening doors. It is very Hogwarts-esque!”
There is a lot for new MPs to do, including setting up their offices and hiring staff.
Newly elected MPs do not yet have their own office space on the parliamentary estate and are using one of the Select Committee rooms as a co-working space which, on one of the hottest days of the year, Patrick pointed out, was sadly “not air conditioned!”
He received over 350 applications for two new positions in his office which he has had to sift through, as well as deal with an avalanche of correspondence from constituents, charities and journalists all wanting his attention (unlike the newbies, returning MPs have the staff to help them clear through their inboxes).
Making sure he was on top of it all was, he jested, a bit like “painting the Forth Bridge.” He said, “WhatsApp is pinging a lot. I'm trying not to be on the merry go round of clearing my WhatsApp messages, then clearing my emails, my texts, Twitter direct messages, only to start that all again.”
But now Labour is in government after 14 years in the wilderness of opposition, he is not keen to waste any time, “we're in a position to make the changes that I want to see.”
Matthew Patrick MP with Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham. Credit: Matthew Patrick, X/Twitter
As well as the “change” promised in his party’s manifesto, one of the issues he will be campaigning to help people – mainly women – who leave abusive relationships in which their partner controls the finances.
Patrick said he was inspired by the work of charity Surviving Economic Abuse which he came across when he worked for the Financial Ombudsman Service.
“One of the things that concerns me is those people coming out of an abusive relationship are still carrying the costs of that. Their credit score is low, so their access to credit is limited. Or, if they can access it, it costs them a lot more. Surely that doesn't seem right? Surely, if because of an abusive relationship, you're in that situation, there's a way to restore your credit score to what it should have been had that abuse not happened?”
He continued: “I'd feel really proud if I could bring about change, whether it's voluntary through working with the banks – and we're reaching out to them – or whether there's another route to do that.”
What does the new MP make of concerns by some in the Jewish community over Labour’s seemingly hardening position on Israel? “We have a government that wants to end the war and bring back the hostages. And in the long run, take the steps to get us towards that two-state solution where we have a safe, secure, viable, prosperous Israel, and the same for Palestinian state.”
He added: “Like many Jewish people, I know people who were there on October 7 and who were impacted by it and I've also met families of people held hostage. Everyone talks about the horror of war, but I think we have never seen it so up close, as we are now on social media. It is played out daily.”
He understood some of the criticism of restoring funding to controversial Palestinian UN agency Unrwa but defended the decision on the grounds of needing to get more aid into the people of Gaza. “I think there's no one would say there's a perfect way of achieving that,” he said. “Especially when you have Hamas operating in the way that they do, which is so cynical, and so damaging to Israel and to Gazans.”
