[4] His father was a postman who was wounded in the First World War and died when Flynn was five years old, leaving him and his four siblings to be raised in poverty by their mother; it was she who taught him Welsh.

[6] He unsuccessfully contested Denbigh at the October 1974 general election where he came third behind the Conservative and Liberal candidates, Geraint Morgan and D. L. Williams respectively, with a 20.24% share of the vote.

[8] Flynn was appointed as junior spokesman for Wales by Labour leader Neil Kinnock shortly after his election to the Commons.

[9] On 30 June 2016, Flynn stood in on the party's front bench as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons following Chris Bryant's resignation, prior to a permanent replacement being appointed.

[4] In November 2017, Flynn said that President of the United States Donald Trump should be arrested for inciting racial hatred if he visited the UK.

This involved asking numerous oral and written parliamentary questions at the request of Transform, tabling early day motions and private members bills, hosting events in Parliament on behalf of the charity, as well as doggedly raising the issue of drug law reform in the house in a series of memorable barnstorming speeches.

[25] Following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018, Flynn tweeted that the Conservative Party were "officially sponsored by NERVE GAS KILLERS R US".

[26] Flynn was a staunch pro-European, and described Brexit as "the biggest political disaster of (his) lifetime", despite Newport West voting to leave the EU by 54 to 46 percent.

[28] Endowment Justice, a company working on a contingency fee basis for borrowers, held talks with Flynn over its concerns about bad practices at several complaints-handling firms.

[29] Flynn was a harsh critic of the War in Afghanistan, and particularly the decision of the Labour government to expand involvement with the Helmand province campaign in 2006.

[31][32] On 18 September 2012, Flynn was suspended from the sittings of the House of Commons for five days and docked a month's wages, after he accused Defence Secretary Philip Hammond of lying to Parliament by saying that military operations in Afghanistan were not reduced following attacks on NATO troops operating as trainers, and subsequently refused to withdraw the allegation when instructed to do so by Speaker John Bercow.

[33][34][35] In November 2011, Flynn expressed concern that Matthew Gould, the UK's ambassador to Israel, had "proclaimed himself to be a Zionist".

"[37] Douglas Alexander, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, also criticised Flynn, stating that "The faith of any British diplomat is irrelevant to their capability to their job.

Flynn learned Welsh while a pupil at St Illtyd's College and said he fell in love with the language at that time.

[43] He was an early adopter of Hansard CD-ROMs, and wrote a book, Dragons Led by Poodles, about the devolution campaign in Wales in the 1990s, in which he criticised some of his fellow MPs severely.

[8] Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions on 20 February, Theresa May said of Flynn, "He was an outstanding Parliamentarian, a tireless campaigner and championed his constituency of Newport West and Wales with energy and enthusiasm for over 30 years.

"[49] Fellow Labour MP Jo Stevens described Flynn as a "kind, principled, fascinating man".

[50] Constituency neighbour Jessica Morden stated in a blog post, "In his 31 years as Newport West's MP he never let up campaigning against injustice, holding those in authority to account and championing his beloved City.