Alistair Darling: Former Labour chancellor dies aged 70
Alistair Darling, who served as chancellor under Gordon Brown, has died at the age of 70, his family has confirmed.
The Labour Party stalwart became a household name when the then-prime minister gave him the keys to the Treasury back in 2007 – running the department throughout the global banking crisis and staying in post until Mr Brown lost the election in 2010.
But he had been a presence in Tony Blair’s government from the start, beginning as chief secretary to the Treasury in 1997 following Labour’s landslide victory, and going on to run a number of departments – including work and pensions, transport and trade.
Politics latest: Tributes to former chancellor flood in from across UK
Lord Darling’s family confirmed the news on Thursday, saying he had died after a short spell in Western General Hospital under the “wonderful care” of the cancer team.
In their statement, they described him as “the much-loved husband of Margaret and beloved father of Calum and Anna”.
After the news was announced, tributes poured in from all sides of the political spectrum, led by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said he had “lived a life devoted to public service”.
He said Lord Darling’s “calm expertise and honesty” as chancellor helped guide the country through the 2008 financial crisis, but that his “greatest professional pride” was serving his constituents in Edinburgh as an MP between 1987 and 2015.
He was perhaps best known for his time as chancellor
Echoing the sentiment, ex-prime minister Mr Brown tweeted that he “like many, relied on his wisdom, calmness in a crisis and his humour”, adding: “He will be missed by all who knew him.”
In another statement, Mr Blair said: “He was highly capable, though modest, understated but never to be underestimated, always kind and dignified even under the intense pressure politics can generate.
“He was the safest of safe hands. I knew he could be given any position in the Cabinet and be depended upon. I liked him and respected him immensely as a colleague and as a friend.”
One of his Conservative successors, Jeremy Hunt, described him as “one of the great chancellors”, saying he would be “remembered for doing the right thing for the country at a time of extraordinary turmoil”.
And the woman hoping to follow in his footsteps to the Treasury, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, said she would miss “his advice and his counsel – but, more than anything I will miss his friendship, his kindness and decency, his humour and his warmth”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Lord Darling’s passing “is a huge loss to us all”. He added: “The role he played during the 2014 Independence referendum was vital in keeping our union together. My deepest condolences go out to his family and friends at this difficult time.”
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Gordon Brown remembers the former chancellor and close friend Lord Darling.
Despite being Born in London, Lord Darling came from a long line of Scots, and returned to the country for school, before going to the University of Aberdeen, where he became president of the Student’s Representative Council.
After graduating, he became a solicitor, but having joined Labour aged just 23, it wasn’t long before he changed course to enter politics, being elected as a councillor on the Lothian Regional Council in 1982.
He became the MP for Edinburgh South in the 1987 election, ousting the Conservative candidate from the seat. When that constituency was abolished in 2005, he ran for – and won – the seat of Edinburgh South West until he left the Commons in 2015.
Lord Darling also played a prominent role in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 as the chairman of the “Better Together” campaign.
Former first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said despite the “clashes” the pair had over the country’s future, she “always found him to be a man of intellect and principle”, adding: “He made a significant contribution to politics and public life.”
Alistair Darling led the campaign for Scotland to remain in the UK
Lord Darling became a peer in 2015 – named as Baron Darling of Roulanish, He retired from the Lords in 2020.
His former cabinet colleagues from both the Blair and Brown years were among those marking his passing, with Hilary Benn calling him “an able, calm and thoughtful colleague” and Jacqui Smith praising his “warm, humble approach”.
From the other side of the Commons, former Tory prime minister Sir John Major described Lord Darling as “a decent man, who brought civility, reason and intelligence to politics”, while David Cameron said he was “thoroughly kind”.
Braden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has cited the US Department of Justice’s directive to no longer pursue some crypto charges in an effort to get the case against him and his firm dismissed.
In an April 9 letter to New York federal court judge Eric Komitee, Karony’s attorney, Nicholas Smith, said the court should consider an April 7 memo from US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that disbanded the DOJ’s crypto unit.
“The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” Blanche said in the memo, which added the DOJ “will no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets.”
Blanche also directed prosecutors not to charge violations of securities and commodities laws when the case would require the DOJ to determine if a digital asset is a security or commodity when charges such as wire fraud are available.
An excerpt of the letter Karony sent to Judge Komitee. Source: PACER
In the footnote of the letter, Karony’s counsel wrote an exemption to the DOJ’s new directive would be if the parties have an interest in defending that a crypto asset is a security, but added that “Karony does not have such an interest.”
The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed simultaneous charges of securities violations, wire fraud, and money laundering against Karony and other SafeMoon executives in November 2023.
The government alleged Karony, SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy and chief technology officer Thomas Smith withdrew assets worth $200 million from the project and misappropriated investor funds.
Another attempt to nix the case
The letter is Karony’s latest attempt to get the case thrown out. In February, he asked that his trial, scheduled to begin on March 31, be delayed as he argued President Donald Trump’s proposed crypto policies could potentially affect the case.
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Later in February, Smith changed his plea to guilty and said he took part in the alleged $200 million crypto fraud scheme. Nagy is at large and is believed to be in Russia.
SafeMoon filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, a month after it was hit with twin cases from the SEC and DOJ. It was also hacked in March 2023, with the hacker agreeing to return 80% of the funds.
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Ukraine’s financial regulator has proposed taxing certain crypto transactions as personal income at a rate of up to 23% but excluding crypto-to-crypto transactions and stablecoins.
Crypto transactions would be taxed at 18% with a 5% military levy on top as part of the proposed framework, released on April 8 by Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
NSSMC Chairman Ruslan Magomedov said in an April 8 statement that “the issue of crypto taxes is not a hypothesis, but a reality that is fast approaching.”
He added that the agency created the framework to help lawmakers make an “informed resolution” by considering each suggestion’s advantages and disadvantages because “these aspects can have a critical impact on the market and tax liability.”
Under the NSSMC’s proposed crypto framework, a tax will be applied when crypto is cashed out for fiat currency or exchanged for goods or services.
Crypto-to-crypto transactions wouldn’t be taxed, bringing Ukraine in line with other European countries, including Austria and France, as well as crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Singapore, the NSSMC said.
The regulator says it “makes sense” to exclude stablecoins backed by foreign currencies or only apply a 5% or 9% tax because Ukraine’s tax code already excludes income from transactions in “foreign exchange values.”
A translated excerpt of the NSSMC’s report said stablecoins backed by foreign currencies could be exempt from taxation. Source: NSSMC
Mining, staking, hard forks and airdrops
Other crypto-related activities, such as mining, staking and airdrops, are also addressed in the framework which floated a few options for taxation.
The NSSMC said crypto mining is generally considered a business activity, but there might be a general tax-free limit for certain crypto transactions, including mining.
Under the framework, staking could be considered as “business captive income” or only taxed if the crypto is cashed out for fiat currencies. While hard forks and airdrops could be taxed either as ordinary income or when the tokens are cashed.
Related: Ukraine officials get training on crypto and virtual assets investigation
The regulator suggests a tax-free threshold could help “relieve the burden on small investors” and is common in other jurisdictions.
Exemptions for donations, transfers between family members, and holders who keep their crypto for a set amount of time are also flagged as possibilities. However, the NSSMC says the exemption might not apply to non-custodial crypto wallets.
Last December, Daniil Getmantsev, head of the tax committee of Ukraine’s parliament, said a draft bill to legalize cryptocurrencies was under review and expected to be finalized early this year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first signed a law establishing a legal framework for the country to operate a regulated crypto market in March 2022.
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Digital asset manager 21Shares has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, following similar filings from rivals Bitwise and Grayscale.
The 21Shares Dogecoin ETF would seek to track the price of the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), according to the firm’s April 9 Form S-1 registration statement. The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, plans to assist 21Shares with marketing the fund.
21Shares said Coinbase Custody would be the proposed custodian of its Dogecoin ETF but did not specify a fee, ticker or what stock exchange it would list on.
Source: James Seyffart
21Shares must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund.
DOGE currently has a $24.2 billion market cap and is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by value. It was created in 2013 as a joke and is a fork of Lucky Coin, which itself is a fork of Bitcoin.
21Shares’ proposed Dogecoin ETF is the company’s latest effort to expand its spot crypto ETF offerings, which currently includes only a spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fund.
The issuer also filed with the SEC in February to launch a spot Polkadot (DOT) ETF and last year, it filed to create a spot XRP (XRP) ETF.
Related: Dogecoin millionaires are buying dips as DOGE price eyes 30% rally
The recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.
“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.
Seyffart and fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in February that there is a 75% chance that the SEC will approve a spot Dogecoin ETF this year, while the betting platform Polymarket currently gives approval odds of 64%.
21Shares and House of Doge partner for DOGE funds in Switzerland
21Shares also said on April 9 that it partnered with House of Doge to launch a fully backed Dogecoin exchange-traded product on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange.
The 21Shares Dogecoin product will trade under the ticker “DOGE” with a 2.5% fee.
21Shares president Duncan Moir said that Dogecoin “has become more than a cryptocurrency: it represents a cultural and financial movement that continues to drive mainstream adoption, and DOGE offers investors a regulated avenue to be part of this exciting project.”
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