He was deputy Chief Whip under John Major, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1997 to September 2001 during the leadership of William Hague.
[citation needed] MacKay and his wife (and fellow MP) Julie Kirkbride own two homes: one in her constituency; and a flat close to Parliament in Westminster.
In a case of so-called "double-dipping," according to The Daily Telegraph, MacKay had used his Additional Costs Allowance to claim more than £1,000 a month in mortgage interest payments on their joint Westminster flat.
MacKay announced that the procedure had been ongoing for eight or nine years, and that he would be repaying the monies after taking advice from the Conservatives scrutiny committee.
The following year, MacKay married Julie Kirkbride, a fellow Conservative MP; the couple have a son who attended Westminster School.