‘Alistair Darling was a uncommon factor – a politician by no means afraid to talk reality’

In a occupation not identified for its honesty Alistair Darling was a uncommon factor: a politician who was by no means afraid to talk the reality.

The former Chancellor, who has died aged 70 from most cancers, was not all the time thanked for candour. In the summer season of 2008 he infuriated Gordon Brown by stating the financial circumstances had been “arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years” and the downturn was going to be “more profound and long-lasting than people thought”.

Darling was pilloried for talking down the economy but within a few months the quietly-spoken Scotsman was proved right. The banking collapse a few weeks later triggered the worst financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash. And it was Darling and Brown who helped steer the country through the storm with their emergency bailouts of the banks.

Many felt Darling never felt he got the credit he deserved for the rescue plan but it was in his nature not to seek the limelight or the applause. In many ways he was the perfect Chancellor for a perfect storm. “In times of crisis Alistair was the person you would want in the room because he was calm and he was considered and he had great integrity,” Mr Brown stated yesterday.

Born in London in 1953 right into a Tory-voting household he was educated privately earlier than studying legislation on the University of Aberdeen. As a firebrand younger councillor within the early Eighties the then bearded Darling rubbed shoulders with the far-left and campaigned defiantly towards Margaret Thatcher’s spending cuts. Though he took umbrage at being referred to as a “bearded Trot”. “I’ve become less leftwing than I was, but I was never a Trot,” he stated years later with sometimes dry humour.

Though he was actually thought to be being on the left of the get together when he first arrived in Parliament in 1987 as MP for Edinburgh Central. He was quickly a central determine within the modernising mission led by Tony Blair and Brown which finally led to Lahour’s landslide victory within the 1997 common election. Darling was rewarded together with his first Cabinet publish, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, working alongside Brown. This was adopted by spells as Work and Pensions Secretary, Transport Secretary, Scottish Secretary and Trade and Industry. When Brown took over in 2007 he was made Chancellor.

He was, reportedly, second selection for the position after Ed Balls however the brand new Prime Minister was suggested that Darling can be a much less divisive determine in such a key publish. It was to be a tempestuous three years of monetary turmoil, aborted coups and political infighting that usually examined the phlegmatic Darling to the restrict. He was supported all through by his spouse Maggie, a former journalist, who as soon as delivered a four-letter rant at allies of Brown she thought had been attempting to smear her husband’s status.

After Labour misplaced energy in 2010 Darling was prepared for a quieter life and spending extra time with Maggie and their kids Calum and Anna however there was to be a last encore. In 2014 he chaired the profitable Better Together marketing campaign in Scottish referendum, incomes the gratitude of all these needed to maintain the dominion united. “Alistair lived a life devoted to public service,”Keir Starmer stated yesterday.

The Labour chief added: “He will be remembered as the Chancellor whose calm expertise and honesty helped to guide Britain through the tumult of the global financial crisis. He was a lifelong advocate for Scotland and the Scottish people and his greatest professional pride came from representing his constituents in Edinburgh.

Tony Blair said Lord Darling was “a rarity in politics”. “I by no means met anybody who did not like him. He was extremely succesful although modest, understated however by no means to be underestimated, all the time type and dignified even underneath the extreme strain politics can generate,” he stated.