The MP suspended by the Conservative party for allegedly misusing campaign funds grew up in Ardrossan.

According to allegations in national newspapers this week, £14,000 given by donors for use on campaign activities was transferred to Fylde MP Mark Menzies' personal bank accounts and used for private medical expenses.

It is also claimed a further £6,500 was paid by his office manager to people Mr Menzies met on an online dating site who, he said, had locked him into a flat. Campaign funds were later used to reimburse her.

But few knew that Mr Menzies, 52, was raised in Ardrossan and attended primary school there.

The future MP was raised by his mother after his Merchant Navy father died a month before he was born at Ayrshrie Central Hospital in Irvine.

His mum worked shifts at the Ardeer ICI factory and Mr Menzies completed his secondary education at the independent Keil School in Dumbarton, thanks to an Assisted Places scheme.

He studed at the University of Glasgow, where he was president of the Conservative Association in 1994 and graduated with an honours Masters degree in Economic and Social History.

Mr Fylde went on to join Marks & Spencer as a graduate trainee in 1994, and later worked in marketing for two large UK supermarkets. In 2007, he was the recipient of the IGD/Unilever Social Innovation Marketing award, according to his Wikiperia entry.

His political career kicked off in the 2001 General Election campaign when he stood for the Conservatives in Govan, a safe Labour seat.

In 2005, he came a close second in Selby, Yorkshire, losing to Labour by 500 votes.

Future Tory Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron added Mr Menzies to the party's 'A List' of candidates and he was then selected for the safe Conservative seat of Fylde in Lancashire.

As the Conservatives assuimed power, he was one of only seven newly elected MPs to be chosen as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS).

But in March 2014, Menzies resigned as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Alan Duncan, then the International Development Minister, after a newspaper report that he had paid a Brazilian male escort for sex and asked him to supply mephedrone, a Class B drug.

Mr Menzies said a number of the claims were "untrue", and remained an MP. 

Since then he has been returned to Parliament three times, increasing his majority on each occasion - capturing 49.1 per cent of the vote in 2015, 58.7 per cent in 2017, and a thumping 60.9 per cent at the last general election in December 2019.

After the allegations of misuse of campaign funds were made this week, Mr Menzies said: "I strongly dispute the allegations put to me. I have fully complied with all the rules for declarations."