Piers Merchant

Piers Merchant
Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central
In office 9 June 1983 – 11 June 1987
Preceded by	Harry Cowans
Succeeded by	Jim Cousins
Member of Parliament for Beckenham
In office 9 April 1992 – 27 October 1997
Preceded by	Philip Goodhart
Succeeded by	Jacqui Lait
Personal details
Born	2 January 1951
Died	21 September 2009
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative, UKIP
Alma mater	Durham University

Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant (2 January 1951 – 21 September 2009) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne Central from 1983 to 1987, and then MP for Beckenham from 1992 until he resigned in October 1997 following a scandal.

Education

He was educated at Nottingham High School and the University of Durham where he was Senior Man of University College's JCR.^{[citation needed]} He was also a member of Mensa.^{[citation needed]}

Political career

He was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1983 general election for the Newcastle Central constituency, but lost his seat at the June 1987 general election. Merchant returned to parliament as the MP for Beckenham at the 1992 general election.

His resignation was caused by renewed allegations that he was sleeping with his researcher. He was then caught by the The Sun romancing with a 17-year-old nightclub hostess on a park bench in South East London in 1997, while his wife Helen was out canvassing for him. Anna Cox later told how he wanted to have sex in the open and she performed "a sex act" on him. MPs cannot technically resign; instead he took the offices of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, which automatically led to his disqualification.

In the 2004 European Parliament election, Merchant stood for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the North East England constituency at the top of their party list. He was not elected. In 2005, he was the UKIP candidate for the Torrington Rural ward in the Devon County Council election, but finished fourth of the four candidates

Piers Merchant worked for some years in various capacities for UKIP, and was at one time political advisor to Roger Knapman during their successful 2004 election; also, for a short time, he acted as UKIP General Secretary until a suitable individual could be found full time.

Personal life

In 2005, he and his family relocated to Great Torrington in North Devon.

In July 2009 he was diagnosed as having advanced multisite metastatic cancer with a bleak prognosis. He died on 21 September 2009.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Piers Merchant

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Harry Cowans	Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central 1983 – 1987	Succeeded by Jim Cousins
Preceded by Philip Goodhart	Member of Parliament for Beckenham 1992 – 1997	Succeeded by Jacqui Lait