Minister of State for International Development

Alan Duncan MP was appointed as Minister of State for International Development on 13 May 2010.

He developed an interest in international affairs living overseas while his father worked abroad, and later as an oil trader.

Born in 1957, raised in Hertfordshire and across the world tracking his father's RAF career, he went onto study at oxford and harvard. His career as a crude oil trader spanned the Middle East, South East Asia and Singapore, where he lived for two years.

Mr Duncan has kept a constant watch on the wider world throughout his parliamentary career, reflected in his appointment as shadow Secretary for International Development from 2004 to 2005. He is committed to DFID's central goal of combating global poverty and has long been an advance of well-managed, effectively-spent aid.

He joined Parliament in 1992 as the Conservative Member for Rutland and Melton. Five years later he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Parliamentary Political Secretary to the Rt. Hon. William Hague MP.

He has held a number of positions in the Shadow Cabinet, including Shadow Foreign Minister (2001 - 2003), Shadow Secretary for Trade Industry and Energy (2005). In 2009, he was appointed Shadow Leader of the House and shortly after, he became Shadow Minister for Prisons and Probation.