page_title: Alan Duncan
section_title: Political views
hierarchical_section_title: Alan Duncan / Political views
caption_attribution_description: English: Alan James Carter Duncan
context_page_description: Sir Alan James Carter Duncan KCMG is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton and was the Minister of State for Europe and the Americas until his resignation on 22 July 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. 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. 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.
context_section_description: Duncan is a right-wing libertarian.  The Guardian has variously described him as 'economically libertarian' and 'socially libertarian'. He has been described as the 'liberal, urbane face of the Conservative Party'. He is a moderniser within the Conservative Party.
  One of the chapters in his book Saturn's Children is devoted to an explanation of his support for the legalisation of all drugs. This chapter was removed when the paperback edition was published to prevent embarrassment to the Party leadership. The omitted chapter was available on Duncan's personal website; however, as of 2011 it no longer appears. He believes in minimising the size of government, and in Saturn’s Children advocated limiting government responsibility to essential services such as defence, policing and health. In 2002, he was described by the BBC as a "staunch" Eurosceptic. However, he declared for the 'Remain' camp in the run-up to the UK's referendum on EU membership.
  On 2 October 2017, Duncan spoke at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. In his speech he attributed Britain's majority vote to leave the EU to a "blue-collar tantrum against immigration".
  The manner in which the campaign was fought stirred up a lot of sentiment amongst people that are not habitual voters, particularly on the issue of immigration. You could feel in the last 10 days of the campaign, traditional blue-collar urban Labour opinion going viral for leave. They were stirred up by an image of immigration, which made them angry and throw a bit of a tantrum. That was part of the chemistry that explains the result.
  He is on the council of the Conservative Way Forward (CWF) group.  He is one of the leading British members of Le Cercle, a secretive foreign policy discussion forum. In contrast to most members of both CWF and Le Cercle, who hold pro-Republican Atlanticist views, he actively supported John Kerry in the US 2004 presidential election. This surprised some, but Duncan is a friend of Kerry, having met him while at Harvard.
  Following the release of the Panama Papers, which contained revelations about David Cameron's income from overseas funds set up by his father, Duncan defended the Prime Minister. He urged Cameron's critics, especially MPs, to "admit that their real point is that they hate anyone who has got a hint of wealth in them" from whose viewpoint it followed that "we risk seeing a House of Commons which is stuffed full of low-achievers". Michael Deacon wrote in The Daily Telegraph: "There are two inferences to draw from Sir Alan’s outburst. One is that he thinks the Commons should only be 'stuffed with' the rich. The second is that he thinks the vast majority of his constituents, not being rich, are 'low-achievers'. Probably not a view to advertise in his next election leaflet".
caption: Duncan is described as a 'moderniser' in the Conservative Party.
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "26", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "303", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "372"}