Danny Alexander

Sir Daniel Grian Alexander (born 15 May 1972) is a former politician who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury between 2010 and 2015.

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).

Alexander had bought the property, a London flat, in 1999 and, after being elected to parliament for a Scottish constituency in 2005, designated the property as his "second home" while claiming that his first home was now in his constituency.

From 2004 to 2005, he was the head of communications for Cairngorms National Park, considered by some critics as being his "biggest job outside of politics".

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency from 2005 until the general election in May 2015.

In his first parliamentary term (2005–2010), Alexander was the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Work and Pensions (2007–2008), the Chief of Staff to party leader Nick Clegg, and Chair of the Liberal Democrat Manifesto Group (2007–2010).

Alexander was elected to the newly formed constituency of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey in the 2005 UK general election.

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.

In August 2005, it was revealed that Christopher Haskins, a Labour peer who was a friend of Alexander, had donated £2,500 to Alexander's campaign; subsequently Haskins was expelled from the Labour party for this action.

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.

From 2005 to 2008, he was also a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.

In 2007, he was appointed as Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Social Exclusion for six months, before becoming the party's spokesperson for Work and Pensions, holding the post until June 2008.

He gave this post up to focus on his role as chief of staff to the new party leader, Nick Clegg, as well as his responsibility for leading the preparation of the party's election manifesto.

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".

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.

With the 2010 general election producing a hung parliament, he was one of the four Liberal Democrat MPs, along with Andrew Stunell, Chris Huhne, and David Laws, who were involved in negotiating the coalition agreement for the new coalition government with the Conservative Party.

Alexander was initially appointed Secretary of State for Scotland, but at the end of May 2010, he was promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, following the resignation of David Laws.

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.

After the election Alexander became one to the key negotiators in the coalition discussions with the Conservatives and played a key role in the negotiating of the Coalition agreement alongside Oliver Letwin.

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.

He was initially appointed Secretary of State for Scotland for the coalition government, then was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury after the resignation of David Laws on 29 May 2010.

He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor on 13 May 2010.

Following the negotiations between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Alexander was appointed to the cabinet as the Secretary of State for Scotland making him one of five Liberal Democrats to serve in the Cameron–Clegg coalition.

As part of his role Alexander was given responsibility to implement the recommendations of the Calman Commission which was to give more fiscal powers to the Scottish Parliament, the promise to implement the proposals had formed part of the coalition agreement.

Alexander's tenure as Scottish Secretary was short lived, and just over two weeks from his appointment on 29 May 2010 he was promoted to the role of Chief Secretary to the Treasury following the resignation of David Laws.

Michael Moore, MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, replaced Alexander as Secretary of State for Scotland.

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

The role effectively put Alexander in charge of the government's deficit reduction plan.

See also: Scotland Act 2012

In his first official visit to Scotland in his new capacity Alexander was accompanied by the Prime Minister David Cameron for a series of meetings with the First Minister Alex Salmond.

Cameron called for a fresh start in relations between the parliaments in Westminster and Holyrood and committed to appearing every year to answer questions at the Scottish Parliament.

He was knighted in the 2015 Dissolution Honours Lists on 27 August 2015.

Alexander was born in Edinburgh.

As a child he lived on the island of Colonsay where his father was a firefighter, potter and deputy pier master.

He attended Colonsay Primary School.

The family then moved briefly to South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, and next to Invergarry on the mainland, where he attended Invergarry Primary School.

He was then educated at Lochaber High School, Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.

He went on to study Philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at St Anne's College, Oxford.