Veterans minister Johnny Mercer has said this will be his final election campaign due to the abuse his family have suffered – including a recent incident in which a man told his daughter: “Your dad’s a c***.”
The Conservative candidate for Plymouth Moor View is the latest politician to open up about abuse and threatening behaviour, revealing it has left him feeling drained despite his love for the job. The 42-year-old won the seat from Labour in 2015, and has grown his majority to almost 13,000 over two subsequent elections.
After three tours in Afghanistan, Mr Mercer said he entered politics to speak up for armed service veterans and the city he described as the “Jewel of the South West”. And despite an “up and down” time in government – he was relieved of his job twice as Veterans Minister before his latest stint under Rishi Sunak – Mr Mercer was “incredibly proud” of what he’d achieved.
But he said abuse directed at him and his family has gone too far, and that if he wins his seat for a fourth successive term, it will be his last.
He revealed his decision to The Independent after police were called to a man allegedly filming him with his three-year-old daughter in public, before telling her: “Your father is a c***”.
Earlier this month, a man appeared in court charged with sending a “grossly offensive” email to Mr Mercer in a separate incident due to go trial in 2025. And four years ago, his wife, Felicity Cornelius-Mercer, was sent a soiled nappy in the post.
Asked if this would be his last term if he wins the seat, Mr Mercer told The Independent while canvassing in Plymouth: “Yes. I think it takes a toll. When you are in the military and you are fighting, it’s really weird but people talk about courage being like a bank account and you can feel it going down. As you spend it, there is nothing you can do to pull it back up.
“I remember after my last tour in 2010, I was like: ‘Wow, I’m draining the bank account here.’
“I think it’s the same with abuse, you can take it, take it and take it. But then when I was abused, like when someone tells my three-year-old daughter her ‘dad’s a c***’ to her face, I’m like: ‘Do you know what, I could just go and get a private sector job and look after my kids and mow the grass.’”
He added: “It’s just for that reason. I love all of this, but I’m not having that for another 20 years.”
Two years ago, a BBC investigation found more than 3,000 offensive tweets were sent to MPs every day, with one in 20 messages classified as “toxic”. Conservative MP and justice minister Mike Freer decided to stand down at the election this year after a “constant string of incidents” including death threats. Two MPs, David Amess and Jo Cox, have been murdered in the past decade.
Mr Mercer, who moved his family 30 minutes from Plymouth for the safety of his children, said: “It’s a shame. You get the politicians you deserve, you’ll get people with rhino skins who don’t give a f***and will just be like ‘yes whatever’… they don’t really believe in anything, they just want to be an MP.”
But despite his concerns, Mr Mercer wants one last stint in the constituency seat, with his promotional leaflet headlined on the rebuild of the city’s Derriford Hospital. Last year, £180m was secured for the first phase of work, but Mr Mercer wants to see out the completion, which will cost around £600m.
“I want to deliver that hospital,” said Mr Mercer. “I became an MP because I didn’t like MPs; one of the things we don’t like about them is they promise s*** and they don’t deliver it.
“So I am going to see that through, come hell or high water. When I’ve done that, that’s going to be a legacy, then I’ll be like: great, I’ve done that, what next?”
Also standing in the Plymouth Moor View constituency are Shaun Hooper (Reform UK), Sarah Martin (Liberal Democrat), Georgia Nelson (Green) and Fred Thomas (Labour).
