Piers Merchant

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 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 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, Merchant stood for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the North East England constituency at the top of its party list. He was not elected. 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. In July 2009 he was diagnosed with advanced multisite metastatic prostate cancer. He died on 21 September 2009. ==References==