Alistair Darling

Alistair Darling was born on 28 November 1953 in Hendon, then part of Middlesex (now London), the son of a civil engineer, Thomas, and his wife, Anna MacLean. He was the great-nephew of Sir William Darling, a Conservative/Unionist Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South (1945–1957) who had served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh during the Second World War. He was educated at Chinthurst School, in Tadworth, Surrey, then in Kirkcaldy, and at the private Loretto School, in Musselburgh. He attended the University of Aberdeen, from where he graduated as a Bachelor of Laws (LLB). He became the president of Aberdeen University Students' Representative Council.

Darling joined the Labour Party aged 23, in 1977. He became a solicitor in 1978, then changed course for the Scots bar and was admitted as an advocate in 1984. 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. He served on the council until he was elected to the House of Commons.

Darling had a brief marriage when young, and was then married to former journalist Margaret McQueen Vaughan from 1986 until his death; the couple had a son and a daughter. Vaughan worked for Radio Forth, the Daily Record and Glasgow Herald until Labour's election victory in 1997. Darling said he had smoked cannabis in his youth. He enjoyed listening to Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Leonard Cohen and the Killers.

Darling died of cancer at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, on 30 November 2023, at the age of 70. There were widespread tributes from politicians from different political parties. Former prime minister Gordon Brown praised his "integrity" and "wise judgement". 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. Future Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves also paid tribute, saying that Darling had been a mentor to her.

Child benefit data scandal

Darling was Chancellor of the Exchequer when the confidential personal details of over 25 million 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. The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, put the value at £1.5 billion, or £60 per identity.