Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown is a Northern Irish former politician who was an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). He was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for South Down, and before that served as a councillor on Newry, Mourne and Down District council since 2014.

He resigned in April 2024 after 10 years as a public representative to take up a job running a non-profit organisation working on basic income advocacy.

Early life Brown grew up in Crossgar and Downpatrick where he attended two schools, including Shimna Integrated College. Brown went to University of Sheffield, where he received his bachelor's degree and master's degrees in political science and international development respectively.

Brown was awarded his Ph.D. on Universal basic income and Conflict transformation at Queen's University Belfast

Political career During his undergraduate studies, Brown did a two-week work placement in Naomi Long's office in Westminster. His case was referred to the council's standards watchdog, who suspended Brown from his council duties for six months. At the time he apologised for what he called an ‘incredibly stupid decision’ and worked with a road safety charity to better understand the impact drink driving has on people’s lives.

During his time in Newry, Mourne and Down Council Brown made a name for himself as an outspoken critic of the local authority, challenging their lack of openness and transparency over decision-making and spending priorities, particularly regarding large capital projects such as new council offices in Newry and a ‘gondola’ in Newcastle.

He also led a number of campaigns on progressive and green issues, including securing the council’s support for equal marriage, abortion liberalisation and divestment of councillor pension funds from fossil fuels.

Brown first ran for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016, achieving Alliances best result in the South Down constituency up to that date with 5.36% of the vote. In the 2017 Assembly elections Brown almost doubled his vote to 9.18%, narrowly missing the 5th seat.

Brown won 13.9% of the vote in the 2019 UK Parliamentary election in South Down, placing 4th overall with 6916 votes the party’s highest vote in a Westminster election in South Down to date.

In the 2022 Assembly election, Brown was the 3rd candidate elected in South Down, winning 6942 first preference votes. Notably, Brown became the first Alliance MLA for South Down, a largely Nationalist constituency.

It later emerged that Brown had been facing an investigation from a standards watchdog, following a complaint made in 2023 about Brown's conduct towards Shimna Integrated College in Newcastle, County Down, and its board of governors. The complaint was made by the school, in response to Brown lodging his own complaint against the school in 2022 on behalf of numerous constituents who had approached him to raise serious concerns, including relating issues related to governance and bullying at the school.

It was alleged in the complaint that because Brown would not reveal the names of the constituents who raised these concerns (which he claimed had come to him on the basis of anonymity), and because he had previously applied to be a governor on the school’s board (but was rejected because he was aligned to a political party, which Brown had challenged as an attempt to manipulate board membership) that he was acting out of his own personal interest. The complaint was partially upheld with the Standards and Privileges Committee concluding that Brown should not have referenced his own application to the board when raising concerns on behalf of constituents. The Committee report also found that there was evidence of constituents raising these concerns with Brown. A group called Shimna Support Group was formed by parents soon after to represent those concerned about the school’s direction of travel.

Brown strongly rejected any suggestion that the complaint led to his resignation, and was adamant that he had done nothing wrong and was only representing constituents concerns.

Electoral record