Danny Alexander

Danny Alexander (2008)

Sir Daniel "Danny" Grian Alexander (* 15. May 1972 in Edinburgh ) is a British politician of the Liberal Democrats , and from May 2010 to May 2015 Chief Secretary of the Treasury ( Chief Secretary to the Treasury ). He lost his seat in parliament in the 2015 election. Since February 2016, he has been Vice President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank .

Life

Rise to the top functionary of the Liberal Democrats

After visiting the Lochaber High School , he studied political science, philosophy and economics at St Anne's College of Oxford University . In 1993 he became press spokesman for the Liberal Democrats in Scotland before he became communications director of the European Movement International in 1996 . After working for several years, he then headed the communications department of the Cairngorms National Park from 2004 to 2005 , the largest and at the same time the youngest of the fourteen national parks in Great Britain .

In the general election on May 5, 2005 , he was elected as a candidate of the Liberal Democrats for the first time to the House of Commons and has since represented the newly created constituency of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey . He was able to prevail against the previous Labor Party member of the House of Commons for the constituency of Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber , David Stewart, with 40.3% to 30.9% of the vote. After the election it emerged that Alexander's campaign was supported by a campaign donation of £ 2500 from Labor politician Baron Haskins , who was subsequently expelled from the Labor Party.

Alexander was then appointed junior spokesman for work and retirement by the then chairman of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy , and dealt with issues relating to people with disabilities . After that he was a member of the Liberal Democratic shadow cabinet as shadow minister for social affairs for six months in 2007 , before he became shadow minister for work and pensions. He gave up this post in 2008 when he became chief of staff to Nick Clegg , chairman of the Liberal Democrats.

In this role he was chairman of his party's leadership team that drafted the Liberal Democratic Manifesto for the 2010 general election . After the Conservative Party missed the sole majority of the seats in the House of Commons in these elections, Alexander was one of the negotiators of the Liberal Democrats to negotiate a coalition government with the Conservatives or the Labor Party.

Scotland Minister and Chief Secretary in the Treasury

After the conclusion of the coalition with the Conservative Party, he was of Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Minister of 12 May 2010 Scotland ( Secretary of State for Scotland appointed) and thus to one of five Liberal Democrats in the First Cameron Ministry .

On May 29, 2010, the Treasury's chief secretary David Laws resigned after 17 days in office. Laws had before taking office as minister, contrary to parliamentary regulations enacted in 2006, rent payments from his partner James Lundie paid out as his own expenses. Laws stated that the motive was to protect his sexual orientation from public sympathy.

As a result of this resignation Danny Alexander took over the office of David Laws, while Michael Moore succeeded as Scotland Minister .

Two days after he took office, there were press reports in The Daily Telegraph that a legal loophole prevented Alexander from paying Capital Gains Tax on a property he sold in 2007. In addition, the daily accused him of declaring his only house both his main and secondary residence in order to receive parliamentary allowances. However, he later stated that he paid all taxes after selling his second home.

As Chief Secretary of the Treasury, Danny Alexander is de facto in the third most important cabinet office after Prime Minister Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and is thus more or less above the Chairman of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, who became Deputy Prime Minister.

In the general election in 2015 , Alexander lost his Scottish constituency of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey , which he had held for the Liberal Democrats since 2005, to his rival candidate Drew Hendry of the Scottish National Party .

After leaving parliament

After this defeat , Alexander turned down Nick Clegg's offer by being included in the Dissolution Honors List with a Life Peerage title in the Upper House of Parliament. Instead, he was knighted in the Dissolution Honors and has been allowed to call himself Sir ever since . On February 5, 2016, Sir Danny was named Vice President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Web links

• Homepage of Danny Alexander ( Memento from April 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
• Homepage of the Liberal Democrats
• Article about Danny Alexander ( The Guardian )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BBC NEWS: Manifesto Man: Danny Alexander (September 16, 2009)
2. ^ Helm, Toby; Asthana, Anushka: David Laws' resignation over expenses scandal leaves coalition in turmoil , in: The Guardian , May 29, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
3. ↑ BBC : New Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander , May 29, 2010. Accessed June 14, 2010.
4. ↑ BBC NEWS: Treasury chief Danny Alexander 'paid home sale taxes (May 31)
5. ↑ BBC NEWS: Radio 4 Profile: Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander (September 21, 2010)
6. ↑ Election results shocks: The big name losers. BBC News, May 8, 2015, accessed May 8, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Vince Cable among four Lib Dems to turn down Lords offers from Clegg in The Guardian, May 15, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015
8. ^ Dissolution Honors 2015 , Prime Minister's Office press release, August 27, 2015, accessed September 10, 2015.
9. ^ Danny Alexander appointed as Vice-President of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Notice from HM Treasury , February 5, 2016, accessed on February 10, 2016 .