Huw Merriman

Elected as MP for the predominantly rural Bexhill and Battle constituency in May 2015, Huw Merriman (pictured) commutes daily to Westminster from his East Sussex home.

In addition to serving on the Transport Select Committee, he has served on 13 ‘Bill Committees’, which scrutinise legislation passing through Parliament. This work covered finance, transport and education.

Born in Buckingham in 1973, Merriman’s parents worked for the local council. “Ours was a socialist household and both my parents and grandparents were involved in the trade union movement,” he says.

He went to Buckingham County Secondary Modern School and then Aylesbury College of Further Education, before gaining a place at Durham University, where he read law.

Qualifying as a barrister, he worked for a short time in a criminal practice in London, but preferred commercial law. Moving to an in-house legal position, he spent 17 years as a banking and finance lawyer - latterly with Lehman Brothers as legal head of its capital markets contract.

He entered politics after moving to East Sussex in 2006, becoming a councillor at Wealden District Council. He married Victoria Powdrill in 2001 and they have three daughters, but are now separated.