| Matthew Patten | |
| Otherparty: | Brexit (2019–2021) Conservative (until 2019) |
| Constituency Mp: | East Midlands |
| Term Start: | 2 July 2019 |
| Term End: | 31 January 2020 |
| Predecessor: | Emma McClarkin |
| Successor: | Constituency abolished |
| Parliament: | European |
| Birth Date: | 1962 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England |
| Nationality: | British |
Matthew Richard Patten[1] (born 21 May 1962) is a former British politician, who represented the Brexit Party. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands between 2019 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020. [2] He had previously been a Conservative[3] councillor for Bradfield, Wix and Wrabness in Tendring District, Essex.[4]
Patten was once the Chief Executive of the cricket and disability sports charity The Lord's Taverners.[5] He was the Chief Executive for the social mobility charity Mayor's Fund for London from 2012 until 2018,[6] and spoke at the November 2017 ACEVO conference on the third sector.[7] In 2015, he called for a watchdog similar to Ofsted to "improve performance, prevent abuse and give confidence to funders and other stakeholders" within British charities.[8]
In the European Parliament he was appointed a member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, the Delegation for Relations with Iran and the Delegation to the EU-North Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee.
He was the Brexit Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Clacton-on-Sea for the 2019 general election,[9] but withdrew when Nigel Farage announced the party would not contest Tory-held seats.[10] In 2021, he served briefly as campaign manager for London mayoral candidate Laurence Fox of the Reclaim Party.[11] He is the Political & Communications Director of the think tank, Centre for Social Justice.