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

Merchant was educated at Nottingham High School and the University of Durham, 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 Bicameralism, 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 ...

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 Beckenham at the 1992 general election. He was caught by ''

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'' 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''. 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 elect ...

, 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 election, but finished fourth of the four candidates. Piers Merchant worked for some years in various capacities for UKIP, 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 Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based just outside Barnstaple, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and Sout ...

. In July 2009 he was diagnosed with advanced multisite metastatic

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

. 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 Palatinate (newspaper) editors