Duncan was an active member of the
Battersea Conservative Association from 1979 until 1984, It emerged that he had lent his elderly next-door neighbour money to buy his home under the Right to Buy legislation. 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: "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 was involved in the
1997 leadership contest, being the right-hand man of
William Hague, the eventual winner. In this capacity, he was called "the closest thing [the Conservatives] have to
Peter Mandelson". A year later he was made Shadow Trade and Industry spokesman, and he was appointed a front-bench spokesman on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in September 2001. When
Michael Howard became Conservative Party leader in November 2003, Duncan became Shadow
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, but as Howard had significantly reduced the size of the
Shadow Cabinet, Duncan was not promoted to the top table. This continued to be the case when he was moved to become Shadow
Secretary of State for International Development in September 2004. However, following the 2005 general election, the Shadow Cabinet was expanded to its original size once more, and Duncan joined it as Shadow
Secretary of State for Transport. He held this position for just seven months, becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 7 December 2005, after David Cameron's election to the party leadership the previous day. On 2 July 2007, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, as new prime minister
Gordon Brown had abolished the
Department of Trade and Industry the previous week, replacing it with the aforementioned new department. In January 2009, Duncan became
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.
Failed leadership bid Before the
2005 general election, he was rumoured to be planning a leadership campaign in the event that then-leader Michael Howard stepped down after a (then-likely and later actual) election defeat. On 10 June 2005, Duncan publicly declared his intention of standing in the
2005 leadership election. However, on 18 July 2005, he withdrew from the race, admitting in
The Guardian that his withdrawal was due to a lack of 'active lieutenants', and urged the party to abandon those that he dubbed the 'Tory
Taliban':
MPs' expenses 2009 On 15 May 2009, the satirical BBC programme
Have I Got News for You showed footage of Duncan's previous appearance on the show in which he boasted about his second home allowance, denied that he should pay any of the money back and stated it was "a great system". The show then cut to footage of David Cameron announcing that Duncan would return money to the fees office, followed by Duncan's personal apology, in which he called for the system to be changed. On 14 August, Duncan said (whilst being filmed without his knowledge by ''Don't Panic''), that MPs, who were at the time paid around £64,000 a year, were having "to live on rations and are treated like shit. I spend my money on my garden and claim a tiny fraction on what is proper. And I could claim the whole lot, but I don't." These remarks attracted the attention of the press, and were criticised by commentators from all sides. Duncan apologised once more, and Cameron, though critical of Duncan's comments, denied that he would sack him from the Shadow Cabinet. Despite these assurances, on 7 September 2009, Duncan was "demoted" from the Shadow Cabinet, to become
Shadow Minister for Prisons, after he and Cameron came to an agreement that his position was untenable.
Political funding The Rutland and Melton Constituency Association has received £12,166.66 in donations since 2006. Duncan has received corporate donations from The Biz Club (£6,000, 2006–09), Midland Software Holdings (£8,000, 2007–09), and ABM Holdings (£1,500, 2009). Duncan has also had tens of thousands of pounds from private individual donors.
WikiLeaks 2010 According to a
US diplomatic cable published by
WikiLeaks and reported on by
The Daily Telegraph and
The Guardian, US Intelligence drew up a dossier on several members of the Conservative party, including Duncan, in order to assess the possible policies of a future Conservative government. US intelligence compiled details of Duncan's political associations with leading Conservatives, including
William Hague. The cable called for further intelligence of "Duncan's relationship with Conservative party leader David Cameron and William Hague", and asked: "What role would Duncan play if the Conservatives form a government? What are Duncan's political ambitions?"
Nuclear power As shadow business secretary in 2008, Duncan stated, referring to the Hinkley Point C project, that "on no account should there be any kind of subsidy for nuclear power." In an October 2014 speech to the
Royal United Services Institute, Duncan said: "Indeed just as we rightly judge someone as unfit for public office if they refuse to recognise Israel, so we should shun anyone who refuses to recognise settlements are illegal. No settlement endorsers should be regarded as fit to stand for public office, remain a member of a mainstream political party or sit in a parliament. How can we accept lawmakers in our country or any other country when they support lawbreakers in another?" In a
BBC Radio interview linked to that speech and another given during a
House of Commons debate on Palestinian statehood he said: "All know that the United States is in hock to a very powerful financial lobby which dominates its politics." Commenting on Duncan's statements, a spokesman for the
Board of Deputies of British Jews called him "breathtakingly one-sided".
Libyan oil cell In August 2011, it was reported that Duncan had played an instrumental role in blocking fuel supplies to
Tripoli, Libya, during the
Libyan conflict. In April 2011, the former oil trader convinced the UK prime minister to establish the so-called 'Libyan oil cell', which was run out of the Foreign Office. The cell advised NATO to blockade the port of
Zawiya to stifle
Gaddafi's war effort. They also helped identify other passages the smugglers were using to get fuel into Libya via
Tunisia and
Algeria. London-based oil traders were encouraged to sell fuel to rebels in
Benghazi, with communication being established between traders and the rebels to route the fuel. One Whitehall source commented: 'The energy noose tightened around Tripoli's neck. It was much more effective and easier to repair than bombs. It is like taking the key of the car away. You can't move. The great thing is you can switch it all back on again if Gaddafi goes. It is not the same as if you have bombed the whole city to bits.
Appointment to Privy Council On 28 May 2010, he was appointed to the
Privy Council, upon the formation of the Coalition government. He was sworn into the Privy Council on 9 June 2010 at
Buckingham Palace. This entitled him to the
Honorific Prefix "
The Right Honourable" for life.
Comments by Israeli embassy official In January 2017,
Al Jazeera aired a series entitled
The Lobby. The last episode showed Shai Masot, the political officer at the Israeli embassy in London, proposing an attempt to "take down" British "pro-Palestinian" politicians, including Duncan. The leader of the opposition
Jeremy Corbyn wrote an open letter to
Theresa May objecting to what he called an "improper interference in this country's democratic process" and urging the prime minister to launch an inquiry on the basis that "[t]his is clearly a national security issue". The Israeli ambassador
Mark Regev apologised to Duncan for the "completely unacceptable" comments made in the video. A Foreign Office spokesman, effectively rejecting Corbyn's comments, said it "is clear these comments do not reflect the views of the embassy or government of Israel". Masot resigned shortly after the recordings were made public. Pro-Israel British activists and a former Israel embassy employee complained to
Ofcom about
The Lobby, but Ofcom dismissed all charges. ==Political views==