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:
“It does seem strange that the only place in the government which I would have liked to fill myself I am forced to give to another.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)