MP mocked for ‘having lovechild with former aide’
A MARRIED Tory MP was yesterday branded “disgraceful” for reportedly fathering a secret child with his former aide.
Huw Merriman, who has three children with wife Victoria, allegedly had a son with Dr Henrietta Morton-King, 29, after a workplace romance.
The pair had an affair after she began working in his office in Westminster in 2015, it is claimed – with the baby now said to be 20 months old.
The 44-year-old MP for Bexhill and Battle, East Sussex, has been mocked by constituents who questioned why he quit Twitter a day before the story broke.
One tweeted: “How strange... my Bexhill and Battle MP Huw Merriman seems to have left Twitter. Is he not willing to receive polite requests from constituents? So much for representation.”
Mr Merriman is said to have only seen the child “a handful of times” and is reportedly not named on the birth certificate.
This led to another user telling him: “Be a real father and give your new child your name.”
Mr Merriman’s wife Victoria, 44, has stood by her husband although she is said to be “devastated”.
Dr Morton-King, who was on a career break when she became the MP’s assistant, now lives with her parents in Hastings.
A source said: “Huw and Hetty started the affair while she was working as his assistant and it carried on after she moved to finish her medical training at Conquest Hospital, near Hastings. She later gave birth at the same hospital.”
The source added: “The relationship with Hetty is now over. Huw has stayed with his wife who is fully aware of the situation.”
The affair is said to have begun shortly after Mr Merriman was elected to Parliament in May 2015. Dr Morton-King reportedly gave birth in October 2016.
Mr Merriman, a former barrister at collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers, married in 2001.
A friend said: “There is no hostility towards Huw from Hetty or her family.
“They understand his place is with wife and family.”
Yesterday the MP declined to comment and the Bexhill and Battle Conservative Association Office did not respond to requests for a statement.
Neither Mr Merriman’s wife nor Dr Morton-King were available for comment.
It is not the first time the MP has found himself the subject of negative headlines. In 2016 he was accused of sexual harassment by an ex-Lehman Brothers colleague.
Patronia Campbell told an employment tribunal that Mr Merriman was a notorious womaniser who had a string of affairs but later dropped the £250,000 case. his
HIS FoRMER MISTRESS
Henrietta Morton-King with her son