[7] From 1993 to 1994, Alexander worked as a press officer with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, before spending eight years as the Director of communications at the European Movement (1996–1999) and its successor organisation, the Britain in Europe campaign (1999–2004).

He won the seat from David Stewart, who was previously the Labour MP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, the basis of the new constituency.

[10] At the start of the new parliament in 2005, Alexander was appointed by party leader Charles Kennedy as a junior spokesman for Work and Pensions, responsible for disability issues, where he contributed to debates on incapacity Benefit reform, the Child Support Agency and the Turner Report on future pension provision in the United Kingdom.

[11] In June 2008, Alexander gave up the Work and Pensions brief to become Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg.

[12] As part of his role Alexander became the main author of the 2010 Liberal Democrat general election manifesto and became a confidant of the leader.

[14] Following the 2010 general election, Alexander was part of the Liberal Democrats key negotiating team alongside Chris Huhne, David Laws and Andrew Stunell that brokered the agreement to go into a governing coalition with the Conservatives.

[19] The move to the Treasury and the effective number two position to chancellor George Osborne marked his second cabinet post in under a month.

Two days after being appointed to his new position, The Daily Telegraph newspaper published front-page allegations that Alexander had exploited a legal loophole to avoid the payment of capital gains tax on a property he had sold in 2007 alleging that he had profited from a "morally dubious" loophole to avoid paying capital gains tax.

A few days earlier, the same newspaper had caused the resignation of Alexander's predecessor David Laws after finding irregularities in his expenses claims.

The paper suggested that "the fact that Mr Alexander has become the second Lib Dem to face questions about his finances within three days has focused attention on whether the party leadership has properly audited the financial activities of its senior figures".

As part of the review due to be announced on 20 October 2010 a star chamber was established chaired by Osborne and Alexander designed to scrutinise the spending plans of each government department.

A series of leaked letters from cabinet ministers showed that the spending review was causing strain within government departments including within the Department for Work and Pensions when a memo from Osborne to Iain Duncan Smith suggested that deep cuts to the welfare budget had already been agreed, prompting accusations by Labour that the cuts were "vicious" and an attack on the poorest in society.

[30] Kenneth Clarke, the Secretary of State for Justice, said that he was "relishing" life back at the centre of government and said that the discussions on the spending review he had with Danny Alexander were "rather informal but quite intense and serious.

Despite the scale of the cuts announced Alexander, in his letter, went on to claim that the burden had been spread fairly by ensuring that key public services relied on by the most vulnerable in society had been protected.

Alexander caused controversy after giving a speech to a group of businessmen that a £10 billion windfall tax on North Sea oil revenue in the 2011 budget was his idea.

[39] In January 2015, Nick Clegg was accused of a "desperate ploy" to save Alexander's seat from the SNP by offering the possibility of completing a city deal for Inverness just ahead of the 2015 general election.

[40] The day after approving the last budget of the Coalition as set out by George Osborne, Alexander took the unprecedented step of issuing an alternative fiscal plan for the next Parliament based on Liberal Democrat policy.

He was barracked by Labour MPs throughout, who repeatedly alluded to the Red Book containing the official budget unveiled the day before.