Editing Patrick Mercer (section)

===Parliament from 2001===
Mercer was first elected to Parliament as the member for [[Newark (UK Parliament constituency)|Newark]] at the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 general election]], defeating the Labour incumbent, [[Fiona Jones]], overturning a majority of 3,000 and creating a majority of just over 4,000. In the Commons, he initially served as a back-bencher on the [[Defence Select Committee]] before becoming [[Parliamentary Private Secretary]] to the Shadow [[Secretary of State for Defence]]. Mercer backed [[Iain Duncan Smith]] over [[Kenneth Clarke]] in the [[2001 Conservative leadership election]]. Subsequently, he was appointed to a newly created post of [[Shadow Minister]] for Homeland Security in June 2003 after Duncan Smith became Conservative leader.

In 2004 he introduced a Private Member's Bill in response to the publicity surrounding the case of [[Tony Martin (farmer)|Tony Martin]] that proposed to give householders greater powers when protecting their property from burglary.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kite |first=Melissa |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1479776/Tories-launch-Bill-to-give-householders-the-power-to-tackle-intruders.html |title=Private Members Householders Protection Bill 2004 |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |date=26 December 2004 |access-date=31 May 2013 |location=London}}</ref>

Mercer increased his majority in Newark to 6,464 at the 2005 general election.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/constituency/1150/newark |title=Newark: Constituency &#124; Politics |newspaper=The Guardian |date=22 March 2013 |access-date=31 May 2013 |location=London}}</ref>