Darling joined the Labour Party aged 23, in 1977.[14] He became a solicitor in 1978, then changed course for the Scots bar and was admitted as an advocate in 1984.[14] In 1982 he was elected to the Lothian Regional Council, where he supported large rates rises in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's rate-capping laws, and even threatened not to set a rate at all.[15] He served on the council until he was elected to the House of Commons.[16]
Following the creation of the devolved Scottish Parliament, the number of Scottish seats at Westminster was reduced, and the Edinburgh Central constituency he represented was abolished, to be split between constituencies centred on peripheral areas of the city. The Labour government offered a peerage to Lynda Clark, the Advocate General for Scotland, so that Darling could contest the new Edinburgh South West constituency, the main successor to Clark's Edinburgh Pentlands constituency.[18][19] At the 2005 general election, he won the seat.[20] The Labour Party was so concerned that Darling might be defeated that several senior party figures, including deputy prime minister John Prescott and chancellor Gordon Brown, made encouragement trips to the constituency during the campaign. Despite being a senior Cabinet minister, Darling was hardly seen outside the area, as he was making the maximum effort to win his seat.[21] In the event he won it with a majority of 7,242 over the second-placed Conservative candidate, the latter having been held back by the Liberal Democrats coming in a close third. Darling won by a comfortable 16.5% margin on a 65.4% turnout. In 2010, despite Labour's defeat nationally, he received an increased majority of 8,447.[22]
Darling gave the government's support to the Crossrail scheme for an east–west rail line under London,[33] whose £10 billion projected cost later rose to £15 billion.[citation needed]
Although he was not at the Department for Transport at the time of the collapse of Railtrack, Darling vigorously defended what had been done in a speech to the House of Commons on 24 October 2005.[34] This included threats that had been made to the independent Rail Regulator that if he intervened to defend the company against the government's attempts to force it into railway administration – a special status for insolvent railway companies[citation needed] – the government would introduce emergency legislation to take the regulator under direct political control.[citation needed]
On 28 June 2007, the new prime minister and former chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown promoted Darling to replace himself as chancellor, a promotion widely anticipated in the media.[37] Journalists observed that three of Darling's four junior ministers at the Treasury (Angela Eagle, Jane Kennedy and Kitty Ussher) were female, and dubbed his team "Darling's Darlings".[38]
In September 2007, for the first time since 1860, there was a run on a British bank, Northern Rock. Although the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority have jurisdiction in such cases, ultimate authority for deciding on financial support for a bank in exceptional circumstances rests with the chancellor. The 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis had caused a liquidity crisis in the UK banking industry, and Northern Rock was unable to borrow as required by its business model. Darling authorised the Bank of England to lend Northern Rock funds to cover its liabilities and provided an unqualified taxpayers' guarantee of the deposits of savers in Northern Rock to try to stop the run. Northern Rock borrowed up to £20 billion from the Bank of England,[39] and Darling was criticised for becoming sucked into a position where so much public money was tied up in a private company.[40][41][42]
In March 2008, Darling's budget was criticised in a media campaign spread by a social networking site. Amid anger at the rise in alcohol duties, James Hughes, a landlord in Edinburgh (where Darling's constituency was based) symbolically barred Darling from his pub, and a passing reporter from the Edinburgh Evening News ran the story. A Facebook group was created, leading dozens of pubs across Britain to follow Hughes, barring Darling from their pubs. The story was eventually picked up by most national press and broadcast media in Britain, and David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition at the time, cited the movement at Prime Minister's Questions on 26 March.[43]
Budgets
On 12 March 2008, Darling gave his first budget in the House of Commons.[44][45]
On 22 April 2009, Darling delivered his second budget speech in the House of Commons. To stimulate the motor industry, a £2,000 allowance was announced for a car more than 10 years old, if it was traded in for a new car. A 50% tax band was announced for earners of over £150,000 to start the following tax year.[46]
Darling also announced that personal allowance would be tapered down by £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000 until it reached zero which resulted in an anomalous effective marginal tax rate of 60% above £100,000, with the marginal tax rate returning to 40% for incomes above £112,950.[47]
Gordon Brown confirmed on 10 March 2010 that Darling would deliver his final third budget before the general election,[48] which was delivered on 24 March 2010.[49]
Darling was Chancellor of the Exchequer when the confidential personal details of over 25million British citizens went missing while being sent from his department to the National Audit Office. A former Scotland Yard detective stated that with the current rate of £2.50 per person's details this data could have been sold for £60,000,000.[50] The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, put the value at £1.5 billion, or £60 per identity.[51]
Storm warning
In an interview in The Guardian[52] published 30 August 2008, Darling warned, "The economic times we are facing ... are arguably the worst they've been in 60 years. And I think it's going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought." His blunt warning led to confusion within the Labour Party. However, Darling insisted that it was his duty to be "straight" with people.[53]
In October 2008 the government bailed out the Royal Bank of Scotland as part of the 2008 bank rescue package; Darling said in 2018 that the country was hours away from a breakdown of law and order if the bank had not been bailed out.[54]
10% income tax band
Darling's predecessor, Gordon Brown, just before he became prime minister, had abolished the 10% starting rate on income tax and reduced the basic rate of income tax from 22% to 20% in his final budget on 21 March 2007; this was to come into effect in the tax year starting 6 April 2008.[55] This was not amended in Darling's 2008 budget. Although the majority of taxpayers would be marginally better off as a result of these changes, around 5,100,000 low earners (including those earning less than £18,000 annually) would have been worse off. On 18 October 2007, the Treasury released statistics which established that childless people on low incomes could lose up to £200 a year as a result of the changes, while parents and those earning more than £20,000 would gain money.[citation needed]
Increasing political backlash about the additional tax burden for some put immense pressure onto the government; including Darling with Brown facing criticism from his own Parliamentary Labour Party.
In May 2008 Darling announced he would help low-paid workers hit by the scrapping of the 10p rate, by raising that year's personal tax allowance by £600 funded by borrowing an extra £2.7 billion.[56]
Stimulus spending
To boost falling demand, the government announced an additional £20 billion spending package. Subsequently, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, warned the government against further stimulus spending, due to insecure public finances.[57]
Later activities
Following the defeat of the Labour Party at the 2010 general election, Darling announced that he intended to leave frontbench politics. He endorsed David Miliband to succeed Brown as Leader of the Labour Party in the 2010 leadership election.[58]
On 17 May 2010, it was reported that he stated: "It has been an honour and a tremendous privilege but I believe it is time for me to return to the backbenches from where I shall look after, with great pride, the constituents of Edinburgh South West."[59] Darling suggested on 7 September 2010 on Daily Politics that he was intending only to take a "year out" and might possibly reconsider his future.[60]
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Darling changed the designation of his second home four times in four years, allowing him to claim for the costs of his family home in Edinburgh, and to buy and furnish a flat in London including the cost of stamp duty and other legal fees. Darling said that "the claims were made within House of Commons rules".[61][62]
Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, criticised him by saying: "given that very unique responsibility that [Darling] has [as Chancellor], it's simply impossible for him to continue in that role when such very major question marks are being raised about his financial affairs". A former Scottish Labour chairman and treasurer described Darling's position as "untenable" and said that "[Darling] certainly shouldn't be in the Cabinet".[63]
On 1 June 2009, Darling apologised "unreservedly" about a mistaken claim for £700, which he had agreed to repay. He was supported by the Prime Minister, who referred to the incident as an inadvertent mistake.[64]
In 2010, he resigned from the Faculty of Advocates as they were investigating a complaint about his expenses claims. Darling denied any connection between the two events.[65]
Darling was criticised by some Scottish Labour MPs and supporters who believed that working with Conservatives on the Better Together campaign might damage Labour's prospects in Scotland.[68] At the 2015 general election, Labour lost all but one of their seats in Scotland to the SNP, with swings of over 30% in several seats, including a UK record swing of 39.3% against Labour in Glasgow North East.[69] Labour also lost Darling's former constituency to Joanna Cherry of the SNP.[citation needed]
House of Lords
Darling was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours,[70] becoming Baron Darling of Roulanish, of Great Bernera in the County of Ross and Cromarty on 1 December 2015.[71] He was introduced to the House of Lords on 10 December 2015.[72] Darling retired from the Lords on 28 July 2020, citing distance and the COVID-19 pandemic.[73]
Personal life, illness and death
Darling had a brief previous marriage when young,[74] but was married to former journalist Margaret McQueen Vaughan from 1986 until his death; the couple had a son and a daughter.[14] Margaret Vaughan worked for Radio Forth, the Daily Record and Glasgow Herald until Labour's election victory in 1997.[75] Darling admitted to smoking cannabis in his youth.[76] He enjoyed listening to Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Leonard Cohen and the Killers.[77]
Darling suffered from cancer and died at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, on 30 November 2023, at the age of 70.[8][78] There were widespread tributes from politicians from different political parties. Former prime minister Gordon Brown praised his "integrity" and "wise judgement".[79] A memorial service for Darling at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh the following month was attended by many present and former political leaders, including Sir Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, George Osborne, Humza Yousaf and Sir Keir Starmer.[80] Future Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves also paid tribute, saying that Darling had been a mentor to her.[81]
^Stratton, Allegra; Walker, Peter (12 March 2008). "Budget: the main points". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
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