In Government
Following the 1997 General Election he entered Cabinet as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was one of only three people who had been in the Cabinet from the time Labour gained power until losing its majority in 2010; the others were Gordon Brown and Jack Straw.
In 1998 he was made the Secretary of State for Social Security replacing Harriet Harman who had been dismissed. After the 2001 General Election, the Department of Social Security was abolished and replaced with the new Department for Work and Pensions, which also took employment away from the education portfolio, Darling fronted the new department until 2002 when he was repositioned to the Department for Transport, in the event of his predecessor Stephen Byers resigning.
Read more about this topic: Alistair Darling
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“The government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought- free, fancy-free, imagination-free ... unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Our government is founded upon the intelligence of the people. I for one do not despair of the republic. I have great confidence in the virtue of the great majority of the people, and I cannot fear the result.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)