View Alan's expense claims (opens in a new window)
Alan Duncan has been a pivotal influence in the fortunes of the Conservative for well over ten years.
It was his campaign skills which secured the election of William Hague as leader in 1997, following the resignation of John Major after seven years as Prime Minister.
He has been at the forefront of efforts to modernise the party and to shift it from holding old-fashioned traditional social attitudes to becoming a party which is socially and economically liberal. He is one of the senior Conservatives who are realigning the party under David Cameron.
In July 2002 he became the first ever Conservative MP to declare openly that he is gay, and he helped steer the 2004 Civil Partnership Act through the Commons. In July 2008 he became the first ever Conservative politician to enter into a civil partnership.
His 1995 book 'Saturn's Children: How the state devours liberty, prosperity and virtue' is regarded as a seminal work. It argued that the steady growth of the state over the last century has made Britain less free, less rich and less moral.
He has held a series of posts in the Shadow Cabinet, including International Development, Constitutional Affairs, Transport and Trade & Industry (DBERR) and now as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.
A popular figure on TV and radio, he is a regular contributor to the BBC's 'Any Questions' and 'Question Time' and has appeared three times on 'Have I Got News For You?'.
The middle son of an RAF officer who served with NATO for most of his career, Alan was educated at Oxford University, where he read politics & economics, and was President of the Oxford Union, and then later as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.
After an initial period with Shell, he spent over ten years as an oil trader with Marc Rich & Co, and has extensive experience both in the energy sector and with the oil-producing countries of the world.
He is regarded as the Conservative Party's most informed pundit on the politics of the Middle East and is a regular traveller to the region.
One of his closest friends for over 30 years was the murdered former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.
Since 1992 he has been the MP for Rutland & Melton, a traditional rural area in the Midlands.
POSITIONS HELD:
-
Shadow Minister for Health
-
Shadow Foreign Minister (Middle East)
-
Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
-
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
-
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
-
Shadow Secretary of State for Trade & Industry
-
Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform
-
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
PROUDEST POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENT:
-
Steering the Civil Partnership Bill through the House of Commons
INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF POLITICS:
-
Travel in the Middle East
-
Skiing
-
Mimics and impressions!
FAMILY LIFE:
-
With civil partner, James