The Right Honourable
Johnny Mercer
MP
Official portrait, 2022
Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs[lower-alpha 1]
Assumed office
25 October 2022
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byJames Heappey
In office
7 July 2022 – 6 September 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byLeo Docherty
Succeeded byJames Heappey
In office
28 July 2019 – 20 April 2021
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byTobias Ellwood
Succeeded byLeo Docherty
Member of Parliament
for Plymouth Moor View
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded byAlison Seabeck
Majority12,897 (29.2%)
Personal details
Born
John Luther Mercer

(1981-08-17) 17 August 1981
Dartford, Kent, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Felicity Cornelius
​
(m. 2014)​
Children3
Alma materRoyal Military Academy, Sandhurst
Websitejohnnymercer.co.uk
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service2002–2013
RankCaptain
Service number558186
Unit29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery
Battles/warsWar in Afghanistan

John Luther Mercer (born 17 August 1981) is a British politician and former British Army officer who has served as Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs since October 2022, having previously held the post from July to September 2022. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans from July 2019 to April 2021. Mercer has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Plymouth Moor View since 2015. He is a member of the Conservative Party.

In April 2021, after notifying the chief whip of his intention to resign his position as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, he was dismissed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In July 2022, he was appointed Minister for Veterans’ Affairs at the Cabinet Office – attending Cabinet – following Johnson's announcing his intention to resign as Leader of the Conservative Party.[1] Mercer was dismissed from the position in September 2022 by Prime Minister Liz Truss.[2] In October 2022, he was reappointed Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs by Truss's successor Rishi Sunak.

Early life and career

John Mercer was born on 17 August 1981,[3] in Dartford, Kent. The son of a banker and a nurse, he grew up in a strict Baptist family with seven siblings.[4][5] Between 1995 and 2000, he was educated at Eastbourne College, a co-educational independent school in Eastbourne in East Sussex.[6] After completing school, he worked as an intern in the City of London from 2000 to 2002.[6][7][4]

Military career

Mercer was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery after graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in June 2003 and was promoted to lieutenant in April 2005.[8][9] Mercer passed the All Arms Commando Course and served mostly with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. He served three tours in Afghanistan:[10][11] as a liaison and training officer with Afghan forces; attached to a Special Forces unit; and as a co-ordinator of artillery and air strikes in support of ground operations. Mercer retired from military service in December 2013 with the rank of captain.[12]

In June 2017, two years after becoming an MP, Mercer published We Were Warriors: One Soldier's Story of Brutal Combat, a memoir of his upbringing and army service, especially his time in Afghanistan.[13]

Mercer worked to help military veterans to obtain a veterans ID card[14] before stepping down from the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans in April 2021.

Political career

Member of Parliament

Mercer has said publicly that he had not been politically active in his younger years and the first time he voted was for himself when he first ran for office.[15] He said that he entered politics with a view to improving the care of veterans and felt that he was a Conservative because he regarded a "massive welfare state that saps the ambition and drive of a younger generation" as a problem.[11] After contacting ex-military Conservative MP Bob Stewart, he was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for Plymouth Moor View two months after leaving the army in February 2014.[11]

Mercer has said he was largely responsible for organising his own campaign "on the cheap".[11] To raise funds, he worked on building sites and appeared in a Dove shower gel advertisement.[16][17]

He was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Moor View at the 2015 general election, defeating the incumbent Labour MP, Alison Seabeck. Mercer delivered his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 1 June 2015, stating his "main missions" in Parliament to be improving provision for mental health and support for war veterans.[18] He has been critical of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team.[19]

Mercer was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU referendum. He later said that the result to leave should be respected.[20][21] Mercer was re-elected with an increased majority at the snap 2017 general election, and has focused on care for veterans.[22][13]

In July 2018 Mercer appeared in Celebrity Hunted, a Channel 4 television programme where participants go on the run and images are released of them so people can try to track them down. While taking part in the programme he missed the meeting of the Health and Social Care Committee, of which he was a member, shortly before Parliament rose for the summer recess. Mercer defended his decision, stating that he had used his position to raise money for charity and had brought his parliamentary roles into filming.[23][24]

In October 2018, Mercer took on a second job working 20 hours a month as a consultant to Crucial Academy for a salary of £85,000 (equivalent to £350 per hour). Local Labour candidate Charlotte Holloway accused him of neglecting his constituency duties to earn a "staggering" amount of money. Mercer said the accusation "smacked of political jealousy".[25] In April 2019 the BBC reported that his salary at Crucial Academy was funded by the marketing agent for the failed London Capital and Finance bond scheme,[26] although Crucial Group later denied this.[27]

In an interview with The House magazine in October 2018, Mercer suggested that his values no longer aligned with the current Conservative party leadership and said there would be "absolutely no chance" that he would start as a candidate of the party at this time.[28]

In the House of Commons he has sat on the Defence Committee, the Defence Sub-Committee (2015–19) and the Health and Social Care Committee (2017–19).[29]

On 8 May 2019, Mercer announced that he would no longer vote for the Second May ministry's legislative agenda (with the exception of Brexit-related legislation) until new laws were implemented which would end the practise of prosecuting British servicemembers who were deployed to Northern Ireland as part of Operation Banner, stating that "these repeated investigations with no new evidence, the macabre spectacle of elderly veterans being dragged back to Northern Ireland to face those who seek to re-fight the conflict through other means without any protection from a Government who sent them almost 50 years ago, is too much".[30]

Expenses

Mercer has been challenged over his expenses several times. His campaign to get elected as an MP in 2015 was subsequently the subject of a police investigation following allegations that it breached rules on campaign spending. Mercer admitted to police that his account of expenses had been incorrect, but stated that the errors were minor and his spending had not breached legal limits.[31] The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge him, and the case was dropped.[32][33]

In November 2015, he was criticised by the TaxPayers' Alliance after it was revealed he had purchased five Apple iMac computers on his Commons expenses, rather than 'cheaper equivalents'. Mercer responded that the purchases were appropriate and 'were cheaper than the desktop computers offered to MPs by the House of Commons' official supplier'.[34] He was criticised by two anonymised complaints to IPSA [35] in May 2016 for claiming £2,500 on expenses for "professional services" on social media management, and in December 2017 the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority opened an investigation to determine whether Mercer had been paid business expenses he should not have been.[36] He repaid £931.20 in telephony costs and the Compliance Officer made four recommendations to IPSA to improve its guidance to MPs and its processes for checking claims were correct.[35]

Since 2015 has Mercer employed his wife on a part-time basis.[37]

Junior ministerial role

Mercer was an early backer of Boris Johnson during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.[38] He said that he believed "Boris is the man of the moment" and was capable of securing a better Brexit deal for the United Kingdom.[39] On 28 July 2019, Mercer was appointed as Minister for Defence People and Veterans in Johnson's government. In the role, Mercer's responsibility includes armed forces personnel and veterans' welfare. Mercer was also tasked by the Prime Minister to focus on ending the legal pursuit of former service personnel, especially those who had served during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.[40]

On 27 September 2019, Mercer was accused of having broken the ministerial code for not resigning from his role at a training firm whilst in government. He held a second job as a director of Crucial Academy Ltd, which retrains former military personnel. Shadow Cabinet ministers Tom Watson and Nia Griffith wrote a letter to the Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill asking him to investigate whether Mercer had broken the code through his directorship at the company.[41]

Mercer held his seat in the 2019 general election, increasing his majority to nearly 13,000 votes.[42][43]

On 20 April 2021, Mercer was "sacked by text" after offering to resign at the end of Wednesday 21 April, but refusing to go earlier.[44] In a tweet, Mercer said he was "relieved of [his] responsibilities in Government" because of his disagreements with the scope of the proposed Overseas Operations Bill.[45][46] The bill was designed to protect UK military veterans from "unfounded prosecutions", but because it only covered operations conducted outside the United Kingdom (such as in Iraq and Afghanistan), Mercer said it was a "red line" for him that British servicemembers who were deployed to Northern Ireland would be excluded from it.[47][48][49] The bill's key proposals were subsequently rejected by the House of Lords.[50] Mercer told Times Radio that he thought the Second Johnson ministry was "the most distrustful, awful environment I've ever worked in".[51]

He returned to government after the 2022 British cabinet reshuffle as Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs, attending Cabinet.[52] In July 2022 he was appointed as a member of the Privy Council.[53] He was removed from this position on 6 September 2022 when Liz Truss became prime minister, an act which prompted Mercer's wife to call Truss "an imbecile".[54] Mercer was reappointed to his previous role as Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs, attending Cabinet, following Rishi Sunak's appointment as Prime Minister.[55][56]

On 27 December 2023, Mercer was accused by his constituency Labour opponent Fred Thomas, of failing to meet his pledge of ending involuntary veterans' homelessness, when, according to a Labour Party analysis, the number was actually rising by 14%. Mercer rejected the accusation saying "I made a very clear promise on ending veterans sleeping rough because of a lack of provision, this year. I met that promise" adding "Of course people will try and twist everything I say and do". When Carol Vorderman retweeted Thomas's attack, Mercer responded by tweeting "You are both deliberately misleading people. For clicks. Because that makes your shit lonely life feel better. No-one normal really cares about your view. They think you’re mad."[57]

Personal life

Mercer is married to Felicity and they have three children.[6] The family live in a small village on the edge of Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall.[58] For his work in Parliament, Mercer said in 2016 that he stays in a hotel on expenses. When first elected, he slept in East London on his boat several nights a week, stating in The Daily Telegraph at the time that it reduced his expenses costs.[59] After local media reported he had started using hotels instead, he said it was due to the weather conditions and that his expenses claims were still lower than the maximum that could be allowed.[60][61]

On a summer boat trip in 2016, he rescued fellow Conservative MP Scott Mann who jumped into the water having been "ashamed to admit" he could not swim.[62][63][64] In 2018 he won Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted Stand Up to Cancer, sharing the title with AJ Pritchard.[65][66] In August 2020, Mercer sustained a head injury while canoeing on the Tamar, which was treated at Launceston medical centre; he subsequently spent three nights in Derriford hospital, following an infection complication requiring surgery.[67]

In December 2022, Mercer said that he had received death threats and online abuse from an anonymous person in Plymouth.[68] He appeared on Channel 4 in the prison documentary Banged Up.[69]

Honours

OSM for Afghanistan (with Clasp)
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

Notes

  1. ↑ As Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans from July 2019 to April 2021; attended Cabinet from 2022

References

  1. ↑ "Ministerial appointments: July 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "Johnny Mercer twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Eve, Carl (4 December 2023). "Johnny Mercer paid nearly £50,000 for reality TV work". Plymouth Live.
  4. 1 2 Mercer, J., We Were Warriors: One Soldier's Story of Brutal Combat. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 2017.
  5. ↑ Mikhailova, Anna (6 May 2018). "Tory MP Johnny Mercer: My battles with mental illness – and how Army veterans are being exploited and failed". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 "Mercer, Johnny". WHO'S WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U283875. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4.
  7. ↑ "Life before being an MP". Johnny For Plymouth. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  8. ↑ "No. 56952". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 2003. p. 6794.
  9. ↑ "No. 57653". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 2005. p. 7044.
  10. ↑ "No. 58817". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 September 2008. p. 13704.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Prince, Rosa (6 June 2015). "Afghanistan veteran Johnny Mercer's Westminster mission". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  12. ↑ "No. 60890". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 June 2014. p. 11368.
  13. 1 2 "We Were Warriors: One Soldier's Story of Brutal Combat - review". London Evening Standard. 22 June 2017. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  14. ↑ "Applying For The HM Armed Forces Veteran ID Card". Daysack Media. 8 October 2019.
  15. ↑ Bennett, Owen (1 September 2015). "Johnny Mercer: We need to 'grow up' over Iraq, my 'gippingly' embarrassing Dove advert and why Tony Blair is my political hero". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  16. ↑ Mason, Rowena (7 July 2015). "Plymouth MP appears half-naked in Dove shower gel advert". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  17. ↑ Daly, Patrick; Blackledge, Sam (14 July 2015). "Plymouth MP is half-naked shower advert model confirms Dove". The Herald. Plymouth. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  18. ↑ Kirkup, James (2 June 2015). "Cynical about politicians? This speech by Johnny Mercer MP should make you think again". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  19. ↑ Somper, James (18 September 2016). "British soldiers cleared of Iraqi civilian's death could now face prosecution". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2016. Mr Mercer, who has just started chairing a parliamentary select committee inquiry into the post-operational support given to armed forces personnel said that he was "deeply ashamed" of the decision and labelled Ihat and the 1,500 cases it is currently investigating as a "fatally flawed process" that should be shut down
  20. ↑ Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. London. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  21. ↑ "Johnny Mercer: Why I have changed my mind over Brexit". Plymouth Herald. 2 April 2017. Archived from the original on 5 April 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  22. ↑ "Plymouth Moor View result: Conservative Johnny Mercer re-elected". Plymouth Herald. 9 June 2017. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  23. ↑ "Plymouth MP 'missed key NHS debate to appear on reality TV show'". Plymouth Herald. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  24. ↑ "Tory MP explains why he missed parliament talk to go on reality TV show". Plymouth Herald. 28 July 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  25. ↑ "Labour candidate blasts Plymouth Tory MP's £85,000 a year second job". Plymouth Herald. 7 October 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  26. ↑ Quevatre, Chris (24 April 2019). "MP Johnny Mercer's salary funded by failed bond scheme marketing agent". BBC News. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  27. ↑ "Company linked to MP 'taking legal action' over BBC report". The National. 24 April 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  28. ↑ Whale, Sebastian (18 October 2018). "Johnny Mercer has said he would not vote Conservative if he was not already an MP for the party". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  29. ↑ "Johnny Mercer". Parliament UK. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  30. ↑ Bell, Jonathan (8 May 2019). "Tory MP Mercer strikes over Troubles soldiers' prosecutions". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  31. ↑ Blackledge, Sam (10 April 2017). "No action against Plymouth MP after 'admitting expenses error". Plymouth Herald.
  32. ↑ "Tory election spending: MP admitted to police some claims were wrong". The Guardian. London. 10 April 2017. Archived from the original on 10 April 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  33. ↑ "MP Johnny Mercer's campaign expenditure investigated". BBC News. 8 July 2015. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  34. ↑ "Tory MP Johnny Mercer accused over £3,500 expenses claim for five iMacs". Evening Standard. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  35. 1 2 https://assets.ctfassets.net/w59ykwiqehvh/7Ma2MQZJKFso4wffrkAl5Z/e19a3372a879b035b57f3194dbe3be1f/2019_01_22_-_Johnny_Mercer_-_Closure_report.pdf
  36. ↑ "Johnny Mercer expenses investigation: Watchdog launches probe into Plymouth MP". Plymouth Herald. 4 December 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  37. ↑ "One in five MPs employs a family member: the full list revealed". The Daily Telegraph. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  38. ↑ "Brilliant. And why I backed him from the start. Can't wait to get back to this". Twitter. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  39. ↑ Telford, William (14 July 2019). "Johnny Mercer reveals why he backs Boris and wants Brexit". Plymouth Herald. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  40. ↑ Honeycombe-Foster, Matt (29 July 2019). "Johnny Mercer gets defence minister job as Boris Johnson pledges dedicated veterans' office". Politics Home. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  41. ↑ Syal, Rajeev (27 September 2019). "UK minister 'may have breached' rules over second job". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  42. ↑ "Plymouth Moor View parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  43. ↑ O'Leary, Miles (13 December 2019). "Tory Johnny Mercer wins Plymouth Moor View with huge majority". Plymouth Herald. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  44. ↑ "Johnny Mercer: Sacked minister attacks 'distrustful' government". BBC News. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  45. ↑ "Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament". bills.parliament.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  46. ↑ Johnny Mercer [@JohnnyMercerUK] (20 April 2021). "I'm sorry to have been relieved of my responsibilities in Government tonight" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  47. ↑ Davis, Barney (20 April 2021). "Johnny Mercer quits as veterans minister, No 10 says". Evening Standard. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  48. ↑ "Johnny Mercer: Tory MP resigns as defence minister". BBC News. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  49. ↑ "Defence minister Johnny Mercer resigns from government". The Guardian. 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  50. ↑ "Peers vote to halt plans to limit UK soldiers' accountability for war crimes". The Guardian. 13 April 2021.
  51. ↑ "Johnny Mercer: Sacked minister attacks 'distrustful' government". BBC News. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  52. ↑ Eve, Carl (7 July 2022). "Plymouth MP dismissed as minister is now back in the cabinet". Plymouth Live. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  53. ↑ "Orders for 19 July 2022" (PDF). Privy Council Office. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  54. ↑ "Sacked minister's wife calls Liz Truss an 'imbecile' in Twitter outburst". The Guardian. 6 September 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  55. ↑ "Johnny Mercer returns as veterans' minister in Sunak reshuffle". The Independent. 25 October 2022.
  56. ↑ "UK Government website". UK Gov. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  57. ↑ "Tory minister panned after 's*** lonely life' attack on Carol Vorderman". The National. 28 December 2023.
  58. ↑ "Johnny Mercer on life in the army, his childhood demons and the broken Tory "brand"". New Statesman. London. 9 February 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  59. ↑ Riley-Smith, Ben (2 January 2016). "Tory MP sleeps on boat in east London to avoid 'obscene' house prices in capital". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  60. ↑ "MP ditches plan to save expenses by staying on his yacht then racks up £12,500 in hotel bills". Devon Live. 8 November 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  61. ↑ Clarke, Michael (4 January 2016). "Tory MP decides to live on boat to beat London's high house prices". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  62. ↑ Mann, Scott (18 November 2016). "I Am An Adult, And I Am Unable To Swim". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  63. ↑ McCann, Kate (18 November 2016). "Tory MP Johnny Mercer rescued colleague who was afraid to admit he couldn't swim from drowning". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  64. ↑ "Non-swimmer North Cornwall MP Scott Mann rescued after trying to swim to shore on Rame Peninsula". Cornwall Live. Local World. 18 November 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  65. ↑ Timms, Katie (13 November 2018). "Plymouth MP Johnny Mercer wins Celebrity Hunted". PlymouthLive. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  66. ↑ "Interview with Kay Burley and Johnny Mercer MP for Celebrity Hunted | Channel 4". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  67. ↑ "MP injures head in canoe accident". BBC News. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  68. ↑ Edwards, Amber (13 December 2022). "Plymouth MP receives 'death threats and online abuse'". Plymouth Herald.
  69. ↑ "Watch Banged Up: Stars Behind Bars | Stream free on Channel 4". www.channel4.com.
  70. ↑ Tilbrook, Richard (19 July 2022). "ORDERS APPROVED AND BUSINESS TRANSACTED AT THE PRIVY COUNCIL HELD BY THE QUEEN AT WINDSOR CASTLE ON 19TH JULY 2022" (PDF). The Privy Council Office. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
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