Paul Philip Flynn was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Newport West from the 1987 general election until his death in 2019. He briefly served as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in 2016, becoming the oldest MP to hold a Shadow Cabinet position, aged 81.

The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, who won a majority of 102 seats and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.