Alan Duncan

Sir Alan James Carter Duncan (born 31 March 1957) is a British former politician who served as Minister of State for International Development from 2010 to 2014 and Minister of State for Europe and the Americas from 2016 to 2019.

Their family supported the Liberal Party, and Duncan ran (and lost) as a Liberal at a school mock election in 1970; two years later he joined the Young Conservatives.

He then attended St John's College, Oxford, where he coxed the college first eight, and was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1979.

Whilst there, he formed a friendship with Benazir Bhutto, and ran her successful campaign to become the President of the Oxford Union.

After graduating from Oxford, Duncan worked as a trader of oil and refined products, first with Royal Dutch Shell (1979–81) and then for Marc Rich from 1982 to 1988 (Rich became a fugitive from justice in 1983).

He worked for Rich in London and Singapore.

Duncan was an active member of the Battersea Conservative Association from 1979 until 1984, when he moved to live in Singapore, from which he returned in 1986.

He gained a Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University between 1981 and 1982.

Duncan first stood for Parliament as a Conservative candidate in the 1987 general election, unsuccessfully contesting the safe Labour seat of Barnsley West and Penistone.

Duncan used the connections he had built up to be self-employed from 1988 to 1992, acting as a consultant and adviser to foreign governments on oil supplies, shipping and refining.

In 1989, Duncan set up the independent Harcourt Consultants, which advises on oil and gas matters.

He made over £1 million after helping fill the need to supply oil to Pakistan after supplies from Kuwait had been disrupted in the Gulf War.

After Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned in November 1990, he offered his home in Westminster as the headquarters of John Major's leadership campaign.

A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton from 1992 to 2019.

He began his career in the oil industry with Royal Dutch Shell, and was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1992 general election.

For the 1992 general election he was selected as the Conservative candidate for Rutland and Melton, a safe Conservative seat, which he retained with a 59% share of the votes cast.

From 1993 to 1995, Duncan was a member of the Social Security Select Committee.

His first governmental position was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Health, a position he obtained in December 1993.

He resigned from the position within a month, after it emerged that he had used the Right to Buy programme to make profits on property deals.

It emerged that he had lent his elderly next-door neighbour money to buy his home under the Right to Buy legislation.

He returned to government in July 1995, when he was again appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary, this time to the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Brian Mawhinney.

In November 1995, Duncan performed a citizen's arrest on an Asylum Bill protester who threw paint and flour at Mawhinney on College Green.

After gaining several minor positions in the government of John Major, he played a key role in William Hague's successful bid for the Conservative leadership in 1997.

In the Labour landslide of 1997, his proportion of the vote was reduced to 46% but increased at subsequent elections to a high of 62.8% in 2017.

He became the first openly gay Conservative Member of Parliament, publicly coming out in 2002.

Duncan was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, the second son of James Grant Duncan, an RAF wing commander, and his wife Anne Duncan (née Carter), a teacher.

The family travelled much, following Duncan's father on NATO postings, including in Gibraltar, Italy, and Norway.

Duncan was educated at two independent schools: Beechwood Park School in Markyate, and Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood, at both of which he was 'Head Monitor' (head boy).

He had two brothers, who also attended Beechwood Park School.

Duncan received several promotions to the Conservative front bench, and eventually joined the Shadow Cabinet after the 2005 general election.

He stood for the Conservative leadership in 2005, but withdrew early on because of a lack of support.

Eventual winner David Cameron appointed him Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 2005; the name of the department he shadowed was changed to Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in July 2007.

Following the 2010 general election, the new Conservative Prime Minister Cameron appointed Duncan as Minister of State for International Development.

He left this post following the government reshuffle in July 2014, and was subsequently appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in September 2014, for services to international development and to UK–Middle East relations.

While on the backbenches, Duncan served on the Intelligence and Security Committee between 2015 and 2016.

After two years out of government, he returned to frontline politics when new Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him as Minister for Europe and the Americas, and effective deputy to then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in July 2016.

The neighbour bought an 18th-century council house at a significant discount and sold it to Duncan just over three years later.

Gyles Brandreth describes this event in his diary as "little Alan Duncan has fallen on his sword. He did it swiftly and with good grace."

After returning to the backbenches, he became Chairman of the Conservative Backbench Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Duncan resigned as Minister of State on 22 July 2019 citing Johnson's election to the Tory leadership and, hence, the UK's premiership.