Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant (2 January 1951 – 21 September 2009) was a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician. He was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

Newcastle upon Tyne Central Newcastle upon Tyne Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Chi Onwurah of the Labour Party. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the fir ...

from 1983 to 1987, and then MP for

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

from 1992 until he resigned in October 1997 following a scandal.

Education

Merchant was educated at Nottingham High School and the

University of Durham , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_cha ...

, where he studied law and politics. He then worked for nine years at ''The Journal'' (Newcastle).

Political career

Merchant was first elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

at the 1983 general election for the Newcastle Central constituency, but lost his seat in the 1987 general election. He returned to parliament as the MP for

at the 1992 general election. He was caught by '' The Sun'' romancing with a teenage nightclub hostess on a park bench in south-east London. He resigned in 1997 following allegations that he was having an affair with his researcher. He later claimed that the whole affair had been set up by his one time assistant and family friend, Anthony Gilberthorpe, for a payment of £25,000 from the ''

Sunday Mirror The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marke ...

''. In the

2004 European Parliament election The 2004 European Parliament election was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. The European Parliamental parties could not be voted for, but electe ...

, Merchant stood for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the North East England constituency at the top of its party list. He was not elected. In 2005 he was the UKIP candidate for the Torrington Rural ward in the

Devon County Council Devon County Council is the county council administering the English county of Devon. Based in the city of Exeter, the council covers the non-metropolitan county area of Devon. Members of the council (councillors) are elected every four years to ...

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 Roger Maurice Knapman (born 20 February 1944) is a British politician who served as a Conservative MP before becoming Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Early life The son of Harry Arthur Blackmore Knapman, a farmer, and Joan Margot n ...

during the 2004 European election; also, for a time, he acted as UKIP General Secretary.

Personal life

In 2005, Merchant and his family moved to Great Torrington in

North Devon North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lyn ...

. In July 2009 he was diagnosed with advanced multisite metastatic

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that su ...

. He died on 21 September 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merchant, Piers 1951 births 2009 deaths Alumni of University College, Durham Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at Nottingham High School People from Beckenham UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK Independence Party politicians