The Right Honourable Alan Milburn |
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Minister for the Cabinet Office Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster |
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In office 8 September 2004 – 6 May 2005 |
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Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Douglas Alexander |
Succeeded by | John Hutton |
Secretary of State for Health | |
In office 11 October 1999 – 13 June 2003 |
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Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Frank Dobson |
Succeeded by | John Reid |
Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
In office 23 December 1998 – 11 October 1999 |
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Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Stephen Byers |
Succeeded by | Andrew Smith |
Member of Parliament for Darlington |
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In office 10 April 1992 – 12 April 2010 |
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Preceded by | Michael Fallon |
Succeeded by | Jenny Chapman |
Personal details | |
Born |
Tow Law, County Durham, England |
27 January 1958
Political party | Labour |
Alma mater | Lancaster University |
Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British Labour politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 1992 to 2010. He served for five years in the Cabinet, first as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1998 to 1999, and subsequently as Secretary of State for Health until 2003, when he resigned before briefly rejoining the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in order to manage Labour's 2005 re-election campaign. In June 2009, he told his local party he would not be standing at the 2010 general election, saying: "Standing down as an MP will give me the chance to balance my work and my family life with the time to pursue challenges other than politics."
Alan Milburn is currently Chair of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, as well as working for PricewaterhouseCoopers in the healthcare sector. In 2015, Milburn became Chancellor of Lancaster University.
Milburn was born in the village of Tow Law in County Durham, England and grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
He was educated at John Marlay School, Newcastle and Stokesley Comprehensive School. He went on to Lancaster University, where he resided at Pendle College and graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with Upper Second Class Honours in History. After leaving university, he returned to Newcastle where, with Martin Spence, he operated a small radical bookshop in the Westgate Road, called Days of Hope (the shop was given the spoonerised nickname Haze of Dope). He also studied for a PhD at Newcastle University, but did not complete his thesis. In 1981 he married future Labour MEP Mo O'Toole, but the couple split up in the late 1980s.