Eric Joyce

Eric Stuart Joyce (born 13 October 1960) is a Scottish politician, former military officer and convicted child sex offender.

He joined the Army in 1978, initially as a private in the Black Watch before taking a sabbatical between 1981 and 1987 to attend technical college and university where he gained a BA (Hons) in Religious Studies from Stirling University.

In 1987 he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Royal Army Educational Corps (later Adjutant General's Corps) as a subaltern with seniority to 7 October 1981.

After receiving his commission he continued his studies in-service and acquired an MA in Education from the University of Bath and an MBA from Keele University.

During his time in the Army he served in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Germany and Central America.

As a university candidate, he was made a probationary second lieutenant on 25 August 1987.

He was promoted to captain on 25 January 1990 and to major in 1992.

Joyce became involved in controversy after describing the Army "as being run by a coterie of white, male, privately-educated generals and said it was rife with racism and sexism."

A Fabian pamphlet by Joyce titled Arms and the Man: renewing the armed services had been published without the proper authorisation, breaching Queen's Regulations, which govern the conduct of officers in the British armed forces.

He continued to speak out about how he perceived the army to the disapproval of his superiors.

He resigned from the army under threat of discharge in 1999 at the rank of major after being found to have broken Queen's Regulations.

He then worked as the Public Affairs Officer at the Commission for Racial Equality (Scotland).

At a hearing in January 1999 which invoked the Pay Warrant rules, Joyce was requested to resign from the army by 13 March or be discharged.

He resigned his commission on 12 March 1999 and left the army,

Joyce subsequently served on the staff of the Commission for Racial Equality (Scotland) before his election to the House of Commons.

A former member of the Labour Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk, formerly Falkirk West, from 2000 to 2015.

Joining the army in his teens, Joyce served as a private in the Black Watch before attending the University of Stirling and subsequently receiving a commission in the Royal Army Educational Corps.

Joyce was first elected to the British House of Commons in the 2000 Falkirk West by-election.

He was first elected to parliament at the 2000 Falkirk West by-election, which was prompted by the resignation of Dennis Canavan.

On election he served as a member of the Scottish Affairs and the Procedures Select Committees at Westminster.

Joyce retained his seat in the 2001 general election, and was elected to the enlarged Falkirk constituency in the 2005 general election.

From 2003, Joyce served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to several UK government ministers.

From 2003 Joyce served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to a number of British Government ministers.

In April 2008, Joyce became the first European parliamentarian to be granted an opportunity to address the newly formed Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when he visited the DRC as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the Great Lakes Region of Africa with other members of the group.

In September 2008, Joyce was criticised by local government councillors for describing the name of the new Clackmannanshire Bridge as "unimaginative" and "parochial".

The naming of the bridge was reported as a contentious matter.

Joyce edited Now's the Hour!: new thinking for Holyrood and has served as Chair of the National Executive of the Fabian Society.

He resigned as the PPS to Bob Ainsworth on 3 September 2009, citing concerns over the war in Afghanistan.

He resigned as the Parliamentary Aide to Bob Ainsworth on 3 September 2009 citing concerns over the war in Afghanistan.

He had previously been PPS to John Hutton during three of Hutton's cabinet posts: when he was the Secretary of State for Defence; Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Prior to that, Joyce served as the parliamentary aide to ministers Mike O'Brien MP, when O'Brien was the Minister for Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry and Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for Industry and the Regions at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Joyce persuaded the Treasury to change the child benefit regulations to remove a discrepancy that disadvantaged young Scottish FE students relative to their peers in the rest of the UK.

He served as Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland under Ed Miliband from June to November 2010.

In September 2011, he contributed to the book ''What next for Labour?

Joyce was arrested five times during his last five years as an MP, most notably in February 2012 on suspicion of assault after an incident in the Houses of Parliament.

This led to his immediate suspension from the Labour Party, before pleading guilty to all charges and resigning from the party the following month.

He continued representing his constituency as an independent until retiring at the 2015 general election.

On 7 July 2020, Joyce pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to making an indecent image of a child.

On 7 August 2020, he was given a suspended prison sentence.

Joyce lived in Perth, Scotland, with his family for most of his childhood and adolescence.