[1/2]Former Britain’s Finance Minister (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Alistair Darling, poses for a photograph in Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain, August 31, 2018. Portal/Russell Cheyne/File Photo ACKNOWLEDGE RIGHTS
LONDON, Nov 30 (Portal) – Former British finance minister Alistair Darling, who steered the country’s economy and banking system through the shock of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, has died aged 70 after undergoing cancer treatment, his family said Thursday.
Darling was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in June 2007, just as the crisis was brewing at leading financial institutions. The upheaval ultimately plunged Great Britain into what was then the worst recession since the Second World War.
The former lawyer oversaw the government rescue of British lender Northern Rock and, just months after taking office, led the first run on a retail bank in Britain since the 19th century.
In October 2008, he led a 37 billion pound ($47 billion) government rescue package for the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS to help them weather the credit crisis, effectively nationalizing some of the largest in the process British banks.
A center-left Labor MP between 1987 and 2015, Darling served as chief secretary to the Treasury and headed various government departments before being appointed by Brown to lead the Treasury.
“Margaret’s beloved husband and beloved father of Calum and Anna died after a short stay at Western General Hospital under the wonderful care of the cancer team,” his family said in a statement.
Friends described him as a smart, calm and rational man who could be sarcastic and funny in private.
Darling was born in 1953 and attended the private Loretto School on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland’s oldest boarding school, before studying law at Aberdeen University. He worked as a lawyer in Edinburgh before becoming a barrister in 1984.
Politicians from all major political parties paid tribute to him, praising his intellect and kindness.
“I never met anyone who didn’t like him,” said Brown’s predecessor as prime minister, Tony Blair. “He was extremely capable if modest, reserved but never to be underestimated, always friendly and dignified, even under the enormous pressure that politics can generate.”
BANKRETS
Darling hit the headlines in August 2008, before the extent of the financial crisis was clear, when he was quoted by The Guardian newspaper as saying that the economic challenges are “arguably the worst in 60 years… and I think.” it will be more profound and lasting than people thought.”
The interview enraged Brown, who believed the comments had hurt the economy, but a month later Darling was proven right when the collapse of Lehman Brothers – the largest bankruptcy in history – led to a collapse in global credit markets.
Darling said the scariest moment of the crisis came during a telephone conversation in October 2008 with the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, then one of the world’s largest lenders, who said his bank had run out of money within hours.
In response, Darling told his officials, lawyers and bank managers to work all night on a solution before financial markets opened the next day and ordered curries from his local Indian restaurant to keep everyone fed.
The next morning, the British government announced plans to nationalize large parts of the banking sector.
Darling said in 2018 that if he had not ordered the bailout, there could have been a collapse of law and order in Britain within hours because ATMs stopped working.
In a sign of the great respect that Darling enjoyed across the political spectrum, six years later he led the cross-party group Better Together, which spearheaded the successful campaign for Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom in the 2014 referendum.
“Darling’s death is a great loss for us all,” said current British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the center-right Conservative Party. “He was a dedicated public servant who served this country through difficult times.”
($1 = 0.7932 pounds)
Additional reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Kate Holton and Andrew Heavens
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