Alistair Darling dies at 70

Alistair Darling, the chancellor credited with bringing Britain’s banks back from the brink of collapse, has died.

Darling died peacefully at the age of 70 in Edinburgh on Thursday morning with his wife Maggie and children by his side, following a short battle with cancer. 

Tributes have poured in for the veteran Labour politician, illustrating just how admired he was across party lines. 

Current chancellor Jeremy Hunt said Darling – who took over the Treasury under Gordon Brown when Britain was heading into its longest and deepest recession since the Second World War – “will be remembered for doing the right thing for the country at a time of extraordinary turmoil.”

Hunt went on to label him “one of the great chancellors”. 

Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was Tory leader at the time of the global financial crisis, described Darling as a “thoroughly kind and decent man”. 

Tony Blair, under whom Darling served as both secretary of state for Scotland and transport secretary, added his voice to the tributes, calling him a rarity in politics. “I never met anyone who didn’t like him. He was highly capable though modest, understated but never to be underestimated.”

Darling was born in London in 1953 into a middle-class Scottish family. He attended Loretto public school in Edinburgh and read law at Aberdeen University. He worked as a solicitor before being elected as an MP in 1987 and serving various seats in Edinburgh until 2015, after which he joined the House of Lords until 2020.

During his time as chancellor, Darling was forced to nationalise the bulk of British banking.

In his memoir, he later reflected on having to make the monumentous decision to bail out the biggest bank in the world. He recalls the terrifying moment that the Royal Bank of Scotland called him to say it was set to run out of money that afternoon. “My initial reaction must have been a bit like that of the captain of the Titanic when he was told by the ship’s architect that it would sink in a couple of hours. There were not enough lifeboats for all the passengers.”

If he had allowed the RBS to fail, “there would not be a bank in the western world that would be safe,” he added. 

While Darling was admired by a wide range of politicians, leading the country through one of the worst economic periods in decades took its toll on his relationship with his own boss – and old friend – Gordon Brown. 

As the recession worsened, the two men were increasingly at loggerheads as Darling refused to give into Brown’s spending demands. 

By the time Labour lost power in 2010, the friendship was over. 

Having said that, Darling did later praise Brown’s efforts on the global stage and the determination he showed in convincing other key countries to sign up to bail out the banks. 

Brown has said that he is “deeply saddened” by the death of his former colleague. “I, like many, relied on his wisdom, calmness in a crisis and his humour.”

He added that the fellow Scotsman will be remembered too for resolutely and courageously making the case for Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom.

Darling’s ability to transcend party divisions made him an obvious choice to chair the successful Better Together campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

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