Piers Merchant, the MP who came to symbolise “Tory sex sleaze” during the 1997 general election, has died of cancer.

Mr Merchant, who was 58, hit the headlines over his affair with Soho hostess Anna Cox at the height of the election campaign.

The former Beckenham MP spent most of his career in relative obscurity until his sexual pecadilloes were catapulted into the public view.

Days before polling day in 1997, he was photographed kissing 17-year-old Ms Cox in a park in his constituency.

Mr Merchant, a committed Thatcherite, was PPS to Social Security Secretary Peter Lilley at the time. Dubbed “Sleaze Merchant” by the newspapers, his conduct was used as another example of Tory hypocrisy in the wake of John Major's “back to basics” moral crusade.

“I'm not old enough to vote — but I'm old enough to know when I've been used,” Ms Cox was quoted as saying.

The MP said he had been set up by the tabloids and his wife Helen stood by him, declaring that although he had been a “bloody fool” she still loved him.

Helen Merchant stood by her husband

He took Ms Cox to the Tory conference in Blackpool that year and they were videoed by the Sunday Mirror cavorting on a bed in a hotel soon afterwards. Mrs Merchant still stood by her husband, insisting that Ms Cox was a family friend with whom she was happy for her husband to spend his nights.

Mr Merchant quit as an MP 48 hours later under pressure from new Tory leader William Hague.

Mr Merchant was elected to Newcastle Central in 1983 but lost the seat in 1987. After resigning his seat in 1997, he went to work for the London Chamber of Commerce.

He became chief executive of the United Kingdom Independence Party in 2004. He is survived by his wife, one son and one daughter.