Member of Parliament
Which position did Johnny Mercer (politician) hold between Dec 2020 and Dec 2020?
Johnny Mercer ( politician ) John Luther Mercer ( born 17 August 1981 ) is a British Conservative politician and former British Army officer . He has served as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Moor View since 2015 . Mercer served as Minister for Defence People and Veterans from 28 July 2019 until 20 April 2021 , when , after notifying the Chief Whip that he intended resigning , he was dismissed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson . Early life and career . John Mercer was born in Dartford on 17 August 1981 . The son of a banker and a nurse , he grew up in a strict Baptist family with seven siblings . Between 1995 and 2000 , he was educated at Eastbourne College , a co-educational independent school in Eastbourne in East Sussex . After completing school , he worked as an intern in the City of London from 2000–02 instead of attending university . 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 . Mercer passed the All Arms Commando Course and served mostly with 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery . He did three tours in Afghanistan : 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 . Two years after becoming an MP , in June 2017 , Mercer published We Were Warriors : One Soldiers Story of Brutal Combat , a memoir of his upbringing and army service , especially his time in Afghanistan . 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 . 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 . 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 . Mercer has said he was largely responsible for organising his own campaign on the cheap . To raise funds , he worked on building sites and even appeared in a Dove shower gel advert . He was first 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 , describing his main missions in Parliament to be improving provision for mental health and support for war veterans . He has been critical of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team . Mercer was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU referendum . He later said that the result to leave should be respected . Mercer was re-elected with an increased majority at the snap 2017 general election , and he has focused on care for veterans . In July 2018 after he appeared in Celebrity Hunted . This was 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 broke up 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 . In October 2018 , Mercer took on a second job working twenty 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 . 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 , although Crucial Group later denied this . 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 . In the House of Commons he sat on the Defence Committee , the Defence Sub-Committee ( 2015–19 ) and the Health and Social Care Committee ( 2017–19 ) . On 8 May 2019 , Mercer announced that he would no longer support the governments legislative agenda until it ended the system for prosecuting historical allegations against British soldiers , in particular in relation to actions during the British Armys presence in Northern Ireland during the Troubles of the latter third of the twentieth century . 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 . The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge him , and the case was dropped . 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 . He was criticised 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 . As of 2015 , Mercer employed his wife on a part-time basis . Junior ministerial role . Mercer was an early backer of Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election . 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 . On 28 July 2019 , Mercer was appointed as Minister for Defence People and Veterans in Johnsons government . In the role , Mercers 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 . 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 . Mercer held his seat in the 2019 general election , increasing his majority to nearly 13,000 votes . 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 . 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 . This new government law is designed to protect veterans from historical criminal prosecutions . However , Mercer said it was a red line for him that British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland are excluded from the Bill . He told Times Radio that he thought the Second Johnson ministry was the most distrustful , awful environment Ive ever worked in . Personal life . Mercer is married to Felicity and they have three children . The family live in a small village on the edge of Bodmin Moor , in Cornwall . For his work in Parliament , Mercer 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 . 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 . On a summer boat trip in 2016 , he saved the life of fellow Conservative MP Scott Mann who fell into the water having previously been ashamed to admit he could not swim . In August 2020 , Mercer sustained a serious head injury while canoeing and spent three nights in hospital . External links . - Official website - Ex-Army heads criticise investigation into Iraq abuse allegations on the BBC website