Alan Duncan height - How tall is Alan Duncan?

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

In January 2017, Al Jazeera aired a series entitled The Lobby. The last episode showed Shai Masot, an official 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, but Ofcom dismissed all charges.

In August 2011 he found himself under pressure to remove a video of himself accusing Israel of a "land grab" in the occupied territories. 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".

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.

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.

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."

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 Ltd (£8,000, 2007–09), and ABM Holdings Limited (£1,500, 2009). Duncan has also had tens of thousands of pounds from private individual donors.

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.

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.

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

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". Duncan and Hague had both been at Oxford, both been Presidents of the Oxford Union, and had been close friends since at least the early 1980s.

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

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. 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."

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.

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.

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. 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. In the Labour landslide of 1997, his proportion of the vote was reduced to 46% but has since increased to 48% in 2001, 51% in 2005 and 51% in 2010.

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

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. 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.

Sir Alan James Carter Duncan KCMG (born 31 March 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton and was the Minister of State for Europe and the Americas until his resignation on 22 July 2019.