Piers Merchant

Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant (born 2 January 1951) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beckenham, but resigned in October 1997.

Before he became an MP he was a journalist and marketing officer. Merchant was from Nottingham and studied at the University of Durham and was Senior Man of University College's JCR. He was 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. He stood for Beckenham at the 1992 general election and won.

His resignation was caused by renewed allegations that he was sleeping with his researcher, which he had previously denied in March 1997. He was then caught by the The Sun canoodling 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. Blonde Anna Cox later told how he wanted to have sex in the open and she performed “a sex act” on him [ [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006490723_5,00.html The Sun Online | The Best for News, Sport and Showbiz | The Sun ] ] . 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 UK Independence Party in the North East England constituency, at the top of their party list. He was not elected.

In 2005, Merchant permanently moved to Torrington in North Devon. Merchant is also a member of MensaFact|date=February 2007.

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