After Brown succeeded Blair as prime minister, he promoted Darling to replace himself as chancellor of the Exchequer in 2007, a position he remained in until 2010.

[7] 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.

[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.

He oversaw the creation of Network Rail, the successor to Railtrack, which had collapsed in controversial circumstances for which his predecessor was largely blamed.

[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.

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.

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.

[49] 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.

[51] 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.

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.

Subsequently, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, warned the government against further stimulus spending, due to insecure public finances.

[57] Following the defeat of the Labour Party at the 2010 general election, Darling announced that he intended to leave frontbench politics.

[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.

[60] 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.

[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".

[73] 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.

[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.