# Piers Merchant > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Piers_Merchant > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Piers_Merchant.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Merchant > Source revision: 1347267863 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) British politician Piers Merchant Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central In office 9 June 1983 – 18 May 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 Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant (1951-01-02)2 January 1951 Died 21 September 2009(2009-09-21) (aged 58) Party Conservative (until 2004) UKIP (2004–2009) Spouse Helen Burrluck ​ ​ (m. 1977)​ Alma mater University College, Durham **Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant** (2 January 1951 – 21 September 2009) was a British [Conservative Party](/source/Conservative_Party_(UK)) politician. He was the [Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)) (MP) for [Newcastle upon Tyne Central](/source/Newcastle_upon_Tyne_Central) from 1983 to 1987, and then MP for [Beckenham](/source/Beckenham_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) from 1992 until he resigned in October 1997 following a scandal. ## Education Merchant was educated at [Nottingham High School](/source/Nottingham_High_School) and the [University of Durham](/source/University_of_Durham), where he studied law and politics. He then worked for nine years at *The Journal* (Newcastle).[1] ## Political career Merchant was first elected to the [House of Commons](/source/House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom) at the [1983 general election](/source/1983_United_Kingdom_general_election) for the [Newcastle Central](/source/Newcastle_upon_Tyne_Central) constituency, but lost his seat in the [1987 general election](/source/1987_United_Kingdom_general_election). He returned to parliament as the MP for [Beckenham](/source/Beckenham_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) at the [1992 general election](/source/1992_United_Kingdom_general_election).[1] He was caught by *[The Sun](/source/The_Sun_(United_Kingdom))* romancing with a teenage nightclub hostess on a park bench in south-east London.[2] 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](/source/Sunday_Mirror)*.[3] In the [2004 European Parliament election](/source/2004_European_Parliament_election_in_the_United_Kingdom), Merchant stood for the [UK Independence Party](/source/UK_Independence_Party) (UKIP) in the [North East England constituency](/source/North_East_England_(European_Parliament_constituency)) at the top of its party list. He was not elected.[2] In 2005 he was the UKIP candidate for the Torrington Rural ward in the [Devon County Council](/source/Devon_County_Council) election, but finished fourth of the four candidates.[4] Piers Merchant worked for some years in various capacities for UKIP, also, for a time, he acted as UKIP General Secretary.[2] ## Personal life In 2005, Merchant and his family moved to [Great Torrington](/source/Great_Torrington) in [North Devon](/source/North_Devon). In July 2009 he was diagnosed with advanced multisite metastatic [prostate cancer](/source/Prostate_cancer).[5][6] He died on 21 September 2009. ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-gdn20090923_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-gdn20090923_1-1) Van der Vat, Dan (23 September 2009). ["Piers Merchant obituary"](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/sep/23/piers-merchant-obituaries). *The Guardian*. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-ind20091003_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-ind20091003_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-ind20091003_2-2) McKittrick, David (3 October 2009). ["Piers Merchant: Tory MP whose career ended when he was caught having an affair with a teenage Soho nightclub hostess"](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/piers-merchant-tory-mp-whose-career-ended-when-he-was-caught-having-an-affair-with-a-teenage-soho-nightclub-hostess-1797040.html?origin=internalSearch). *The Independent*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Templeton, Tom (15 November 2003). ["What happened next?"](https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/nov/16/features.magazine57). *The Observer*. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 8 April 2020 – via The Guardian. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["DCC Election Results 2005"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110613201729/http://www.torridge.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=318). Torridge District Council. Archived from [the original](http://www.torridge.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=318) on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2010. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Greg Lance – Watkins (7 May 2019). ["Piers Merchant"](https://ukip-vs-eukip.com/category/piers-merchant/). *UKIP v EUKip*. Retrieved 8 April 2020. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Tele_6-0)** ["Politics Obituaries: Piers Merchant"](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/6224063/Piers-Merchant.html). *The Telegraph*. 25 September 2009. Retrieved 25 September 2009. ## External links - *[Hansard](/source/Hansard)* 1803–2005: [contributions in Parliament by Piers Merchant](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-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 Authority control databases: People UK Parliament --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Piers Merchant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Merchant) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Merchant?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.