Edinburgh memorial service for Alistair Darling told he represented 'the very best of our politics'

Former Chancellor and Edinburgh MP Alistair Darling was praised as “representing the very best of our politics” at a memorial service for him in the Capital’s St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said he had been "a wise mentor and a man of great integrity”. And she highlighted his handling of the 2008 global banking crisis. "It was in that situation that the values that defined Alistair as a man and as a leader came to the fore – a model of calm, careful deliberation and strong instincts when all around him was so uncertain.

"Those difficult months required courage, the willingness to listen to advice, the intellect to grasp it, the ability to act with swift, bold judgements when called upon and to take responsibility for those momentous decisions. That was Alistair Darling.

"Alistair, through his decency and his honesty and shrewd judgment, represented the very best of our politics."

Mr Darling died on November 30, aged 70, following a stay in hospital where he was being treated for cancer. Hundreds attended the packed memorial service, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, former Prime Ministers Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, former Tory Chancellor George Osborne, First Minister Humza Yousaf and authors JK Rowling and Ian Rankin.

Mr Darling’s son Calum and daughter Anna both paid tribute to their father. Calum recalled how at "the very peak of the financial crisis, he broke out of Downing Street" to take him to a Leonard Cohen concert. "It was a welcome break at a difficult time and it was time well spent," he added.

He also recalled how his mother Maggie hired a "small tractor" for his father on his 60th birthday, so he could spend the day on a friend's farm "digging small holes and then filling them in again".

And in another tribute, former Labour minister Brian Wilson described Mr Darling as “a good man, a caring man”. He said: “We remember a serious man who addressed great challenges in the national interest, we remember a straightforward guy who cared enough to make a difference.

He said there were two genes which made up Alistair Darling – an Edinburgh gene which came from a long family history of public service and a Hebridean gene embodying values of egalitarianism and social justice. “Put the two together and they make a powerful combination.”

He said Mr Darling’s private education – at Loretto school in Musselburgh – had pushed his politics to the left. And he recalled his early days on Lothian Regional Council, when it was in the vanguard of resisting Tory government policies. Although Mr Darling could have had a comfortable life as a lawyer, he would swap “the pinstripe trousers of advocacy in the morning” for “the jumper and jeans of activism in the afternoons”.

Mr Wilson spoke of the “long hard slog” of 10 years in opposition following Mr Darling’s election to Westminster in 1987 and then his service in a succession of roles throughout the 13 years of Labour government, culminating in his time as Chancellor.

Others at the service included former First Ministers Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish, former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, Tony Blair’s former adviser Alistair Campbell, former Labour frontbencher Ed Balls and Edinburgh South West SNP MSP Joanna Cherry.