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