Danny Alexander

http://www.libdems.org.uk/danny_alexander

Danny Alexander MP
Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Born in 1972, Danny Alexander spent his early years on Colonsay before his family moved to Glengarry and he went to Lochaber High School in Fort William.

He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. After this Danny worked as a press officer for the Scottish Liberal Democrats before spending four years at the European Movement and then four years as Director of Communications for the Britain in Europe campaign. In 2003 he was appointed the Head of Communications for the newly formed Cairngorms National Park Authority before being elected as MP for the newly created seat of Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch & Strathspey in the 2005 election.

Danny is married with two daughters. His parliamentary responsibilities combined with having a young family do not afford a lot of time for hobbies but when he gets the chance, Danny enjoys hill-walking, fishing, cricket, travel and sports of all kinds.

Record Of Delivery
In Government, Danny is helping to deliver a range of priorities for the Highlands.

i) Danny is at the heart of this Government’s fairer tax policy, cutting income tax by £700 for 100,000 Highlanders and lifting 12,000 out of paying income tax altogether.

ii) Danny is delivering reduced fuel prices - promoting a 5p fuel duty discount for remote communities and reversing Labour’s planned duty increase by 13p/litre.

iii) Danny is fighting for more investment in the Highlands. The UK government set aside an extra £1.4bn for projects in Scotland - more than enough to start dualling the A9!

iv) Danny helped to deliver £100m of UK Government funding to bring the next generation of faster broadband for our region. The first phase went live this Autumn.

v) With the ‘triple lock’, Danny helped deliver the largest ever increase to the state pension - ensuring an annual rise of at least 2.5%, adding £37/week to the new single state pension.

vi) With SCDI, Danny worked hard to save flights from Inverness to Gatwick and established a new £20m fund to protect flights from regional airports to the UK capital. In 2012, £50m was committed by the UK Government to improve trains and facilities on the Caledonian Sleeper.

Parliamentary Experience
Danny joined the Liberal Democrats' shadow Work and Pensions team in 2005 and in July 2007 he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, holding the post until June 2008. He gave this up to concentrate on a new role as Chief of Staff to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and to co-ordinate the preparation of the Liberal Democrat election manifesto for 2010.

Danny was re-elected in the 2010 General Election with an increased majority of 8,765. In the days after the result Danny led the Liberal Democrat team in negotiations which resulted in the formation of a Coalition Government with the Conservative Party. He played a key role in drawing up the detailed programme for government and was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny is a member of ‘the Quad’, is responsible for putting the UK’s finances back in good shape, and is at the heart of decision making for the coalition and the Liberal Democrats.