Piers Merchant

Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant ( born January 2, 1951 † 21 September 2009) was a British politician.

Merchant studied at the University of Durham law and political science. After his studies he was active as a journalist and worked for The Journal in Newcastle, where he spent the next nine years.

His political career began in 1983 when he was elected in the constituency of Newcastle upon Tyne Central, where he had been unsuccessful 1979 candidate for the Conservative Party in the House of Commons. In 1987, however, he could not defend his position. The re- entry into the House of Commons, he managed again until 1992 in the constituency of Beckenham. When he ran in 1997 in the wake of an affair with a 17 -year-old nightclub hostess Sohoer in the public headlines, this ultimately led to his resignation as a deputy. After retiring from politics Merchant was working for the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

In 2002, he joined the United Kingdom Independence Party and ran for two years later unsuccessfully in the European elections.

Merchant was married since 1977 and had two children, a son and a daughter. He died on 21 September 2009 at the age of 58 years from the effects of cancer.