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High-wire Alan Duncan falls from favour
Chris Laker8 Sep 2009
Alan Duncan, the dapper Tory frontbencher, has always been one of Westminster's high-wire acts.
In his time, he has advocated the legalisation of drugs, come out as the first openly gay Conservative MP and caused uproar by joking that he would like to murder Miss California after she said she opposed same-sex marriage.
But it seems his comments last month about MPs expenses - saying that since the scandal broke Members of the House had been living on "rations" - have caused the most damage to his political career.
He made his fortune as an oil trader before embarking on a political career, entering Parliament at the 1992 general election as MP for Rutland and Melton.
He quickly established himself as a hardline Euro-sceptic and a member of the libertarian right - causing a stir with his book, Satan's Children, in which he argued for an end to the outlawing of drugs.
Despite the controversy, he was made parliamentary private secretary to the then Tory Party chairman Brian Mawhinney, making headlines when he made a citizen's arrest of a protester who threw paint at his boss.
Following Labour's election landslide in 1997, he played a key role in the successful bid for Tory leadership by William Hague - an old friend from his days at Oxford University.
He was rewarded with the post of party vice-chairman followed by a series of frontbench appointments.
In 2002, he broke new ground politically, using an interview with The Times to become the first Conservative MP to declare openly that he was gay.
When Michael Howard stood down as Tory leader after the general election defeat of 2005, Mr Duncan considered a leadership bid of his own but had to abandon the idea due to lack of support.
Announcing his decision to drop out of the leadership race, he warned that the party needed to rid itself of the old, socially judgmental attitudes of what he dubbed the "Tory Taliban".
His views chimed with new leader David Cameron's efforts to overhaul the party's image and he was given the key post of shadow trade and industry secretary in the new shadow cabinet.
In July 2008, he became the first senior frontbencher from any party to enter into a civil partnership, joining with James Dunseath.
His sense of humour got him into trouble earlier this year during an appearance on the BBC's Have I Got News For You when he jokingly suggested he would like to kill Miss California, Carrie Prejean, after she spoke out against same sex marriages.
The BBC received a series of complaints after he quipped: "If you read that Miss California has been murdered, you will know it was me, won't you?"
During his appearance he also mocked then home secretary Jacqui Smith over her expenses, only to be ordered by Mr Cameron to pay back £4,000 which he had claimed for gardening.
But after hearing of his new job title and putting out a bland statement, Mr Duncan only had one thing to say when approached by the Press Association: "No comment."
