Alistair Darling funeral: Famous faces attend Edinburgh memorial service for former chancellor

Hundreds of mourners turned up to an Edinburgh church this morning for the funeral of former chancellor Alistair Darling, who died in November aged 70 from cancer.

Mourners included former Prime Ministers Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the current shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, along with ex-Conservative chancellor George Osborne and Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral at Palmerston Place in the Scottish capital. The service took place after a private cremation on Monday.

Other mourners included shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, and some of those who served in government with Mr Darling, including Lord Mandelson and Lord Robertson.

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who campaigned for Scotland to stay in the UK in the 2014 independence referendum as part of the Better Together campaign led by Mr Darling, journalist Andrew Marr, writer Ian Rankin and Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who donated money to Better Together, were also present.

A Labour MP in Edinburgh between 1987 and 2015, Mr Darling was one of only three politicians to serve continuously in government between 1997 and 2010 – serving under both Sir Tony and Mr Brown. As chancellor under Mr Brown, he was at the centre of the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis, and was widely credited for his “calmness in a crisis”.

Mr Darling's son Calum recalled at the service how at “the very peak of the financial crisis, he broke out of Downing Street” to take him to a Leonard Cohen concert. He said: “It was a welcome break at a difficult time and it was time well spent."

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

Speaking about his father, he said: “We did know him best, and what we know is that however interested he was in politics and economics, what he really loved, apart from his family and the countryside, was tractors.”

Mr Darling’s daughter Anna said she was “one of only three people to whom he showed physical affection”. She told the congregation: “We held hands, he would squeeze me tightly and kiss me on the head. Rest assured we held his hand till the very end.”

While she said the family feel “overwhelming grief” after his death, she added they will “remember that to feel such unimaginable grief, love had to come first”.

She continued: “My dad had many important jobs. But the two he took most seriously were being husband to our mum and being our dad. We will love and miss him forever.”

Friend and former Labour minister Brian Wilson described Mr Darling as a “straightforward good guy who cared enough to make a difference”.

He said that during the financial crisis, the then chancellor had made “clear, calm decisions”, and having “saved the British economy from the recklessness of the banks”, Mr Darling was later “pressed into service one more time to prevent the break up of the United Kingdom” by heading the Better Together campaign.

Mr Wilson added: “Suffice to say, nobody could have done it more effectively, or in the end more successfully.”

Reverend Canon Marion Chatterley told the congregation Mr Darling “will be deeply missed, but he will never be forgotten”. She described the former chancellor as a “man who loved his family first and foremost, loved his country, and dedicated his life to public service”.