Sir Cyril Irvine Patnick OBE (11 October 1929[1] – 30 December 2012[2][3]) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician.
During his time as an MP he was a Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury and deputy Chairman of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Select committee.
He was against sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa, voted to reintroduce the death penalty, strongly supported the anti-homosexual Section 28 of the Local Government Act and, in a similar vein, opposed reducing the age of consent for homosexuals.
He coined the phrase 'People's Republic of South Yorkshire' in reference to the policies of the Sheffield City Council under the direction of David Blunkett.
[12][15] Patnick was also heavily criticised by the families of the dead, with the Hillsborough Justice Campaign stating that "It needs to be remembered that this man vilified Liverpool and was part of a lying machine which shamefully damaged the reputation of those fans.