Piers Merchant, the Conservative member of parliament for Beckenham, resigned his seat on October 14 1997 following allegations that he was having an affair with his House of Commons researcher, Anna Cox. The Sunday Mirror newspaper had reported that Mr Merchant had spent most of the week of the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool with Ms Cox, rather than attending the party's annual get together.

The Sun had originally published a story about the alleged affair in March 1997, in the run-up to the general election. Mr Merchant denied the allegations at the time and said that photographs of him and Ms Cox , published in the newspaper, were the result of a 'set-up'. Ms Cox is often referred to by the press as a 'Soho hostess'.

Mr Merchant had been MP for Newcastle Central from 1983 to 1987 when he lost his seat at the general election. He re-entered parliament after winning Beckenham at the 1992 election. He became parliamentary private secretary to the then Social Security Secretary, Peter Lilley.

Because technically MPs can not resign their seats, Piers Merchant has had to apply for an office of profit under the Crown which makes him ineligible to sit in the Commons. The office MPs apply for alternates between the Steward or Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. He was given the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead.

Neil Kinnock was the last MP to resign from the House in January 1995 when he became a European Commissioner, he applied for the Chiltern Hundreds. Mr Merchant therefore had to apply for the Manor of Northstead. The last MP to do that was Labour's Bryan Gould in May 1994.

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