Patrick Mercer

Patrick John Mercer (born 26 June 1956) is a British author and former politician.

Born in Stockport in Cheshire in 1956, Mercer is the son of Eric Mercer, who became Bishop of Exeter.

His mother was born in Lincolnshire and his father was trained for the priesthood at Kelham Theological College near Newark.

Mercer was educated at The King's School, Chester, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he read history.

He was later commissioned after training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Whilst there, he was one of a number of cadets interviewed for an edition of the BBC's Panorama programme.

Mercer followed his father, who saw wartime service in the Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment), into the British Army.

He was commissioned into the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment on 8 March 1975 as a second lieutenant.

His service number was 499748.

On 8 March 1977, he was promoted to lieutenant.

He was promoted to captain on 8 September 1981, and to major on 30 September 1988.

Mercer was Mentioned in Despatches in 1983 for "gallant and distinguished service in Northern Ireland during the period 1 November 1982 to 31 January 1983".

He earned a gallantry commendation in 1990.

He was made an MBE on 12 October 1993 "in recognition of distinguished service in Northern Ireland".

On 30 June 1994, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, then to colonel on 30 June 1998.

During his time in the Army, Mercer completed nine tours in Northern Ireland and latterly commanded his battalion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada and Tidworth.

Mercer served at both the Staff College, Camberley, and the Army's University at Cranfield.

He was made an OBE on 13 May 1997 "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the former Yugoslavia during the period 21 June to 20 December 1996".

He left the Army in 1999 as a colonel, He retired from the army on 1 September 1999, his last posting having been as head of communications and strategy at the Army Training and Recruiting Agency.

After leaving the Army, Mercer was a defence reporter for BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He reported from trouble spots, including Kosovo.

On being selected as Conservative candidate in Newark, Mercer left the BBC and became a freelance journalist writing for the Daily Telegraph.

He was elected as a Conservative in the 2001 general election, until resigning the party's parliamentary whip in May 2013 following questions surrounding paid advocacy, and was an Independent MP representing the constituency of Newark in Parliament until his resignation at the end of April 2014 when a Standards Committee report recommended suspending him for six months for "sustained and pervasive breach of the house's rules".

Mercer was first elected to Parliament as the member for Newark at the 2001 general election, defeating the Labour incumbent, Fiona Jones, overturning a majority of 3,000 and creating a majority of just over 4,000.

In the Commons, he initially served as a back-bencher on the Defence Select Committee before becoming Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.

Mercer backed Iain Duncan Smith over Kenneth Clarke in the 2001 Conservative leadership election.

He was Conservative shadow homeland security minister from 2003 to 2007, when David Cameron forced him to resign after he had made remarks about racism which Cameron found unacceptable.

Mercer is a frequent commentator on defence and security issues, having served as a colonel in the British Army and as a BBC journalist.

He has to date written four military novels and is a patron of the Victoria Cross Trust.

Subsequently, he was appointed to a newly created post of Shadow Minister for Homeland Security in June 2003 after Duncan Smith became Conservative leader.

In 2004 he introduced a Private Member's Bill in response to the publicity surrounding the case of Tony Martin that proposed to give householders greater powers when protecting their property from burglary.

Mercer increased his majority in Newark to 6,464 at the 2005 general election.

During the Conservative leadership contest which followed the 2005 election, Mercer publicly backed David Davis over David Cameron, Kenneth Clarke, and Liam Fox.

Since 2005, he has repeatedly warned against the imposition of control orders as being 'counter productive'.

Citing his experience of internment in Northern Ireland, as a serving soldier, he highlighted the danger of alienating populations needed for intelligence gathering.

In March 2007, Mercer gave an interview to The Times in which he talked about "idle and useless" ethnic minority soldiers who had used racism as a "cover" and admitted that black soldiers in his regiment had been referred to as "black bastard" and "nigger".

Initially, the Conservative Party stated that the comments were a "private matter", but soon David Cameron forced Mercer to resign as Shadow Minister for Homeland Security.

Mercer publicly apologised and said "I had the privilege to command soldiers from across the east Midlands, of whom many came from racial minorities. It was a matter of great pride to me that racial minorities prospered inside the unit. What I have said is clearly misjudged and I can only apologise if I have embarrassed in any way those fine men whom I commanded. I have no hesitation in resigning my front-bench appointment."

A black former corporal who had served with Mercer came to his defence, and the chairwoman of his Conservative Association said she was "extremely angry" that Mercer's comments had been taken out of context.

He continued to contribute to radio, television, and print media, mainly on security and defence issues, and in The House magazine in 2009 his profession was stated as Journalist.