Scandal-ridden Darling stares at election defeat

The warning came as the Chancellor's expenses claims came under scrutiny for a second time yesterday with the revelation he claimed back 1,400 of public money for an accountant to complete his tax returns.

Mr Darling has previously been revealed to have "flipped" his second home four times in four years.

The MP for Edinburgh South West won the seat in the 2005 election with a 7,000 majority. But the recent scrutiny on his expenses has put additional pressure on Labour in keeping the crucial seat.

"I am amazed he is still in the government," the source said. "I have very strong reservations about anyone who has flipped their home four times in four years. He should be deselected. At the very least, he should not be in government.

"Even if his local party is willing to forgive him, I don't think his constituents will.

"He may survive the selection process, but I can't see him surviving the general election in the current climate."

Bob Thomson, former chairman and treasurer of the Scottish Labour Party, also said he believed Mr Darling should stand down.

He said: "On the basis that he has flipped his house four times, that definitely goes against the spirit of the rules. What he did was wrong for somebody who is supposed to be leading the tax regime.

"He should be investigated by the national executive committee of the Labour Party and he should be forced to stand down.

"It wasn't too long ago that if you did what he did, you would have to resign from the government and from parliament too."

Mr Thomson said the Labour Party had to investigate all those who had been accused of dubious practices with their expenses and allowances, not just the back-benchers, and he said the key to Labour's ability to reconnect with the public was to hand power back to activists.

"We have got to give power back to local people because they are the people who have to chap on the doors."

Matthew Elliot, from the Taxpayers' Alliance, said the revelation that the Chancellor billed his accountancy fees to the taxpayer made Mr Darling's position at the Treasury "completely untenable".

"What you'll get is thousands of businesses around the country saying, 'Why can't we claim similar accountancy advice and expenses?' and you can't have these double standards," he added.

The Chancellor came under pressure earlier this month when it emerged that he had charged taxpayers 10,000 in stamp duty for his London flat.

The claim was within the Commons rules, but MPs are coming under fire over a system that allows them to capitalise on the property market with taxpayer-funded allowances.

Mr Darling's decision to change the designation of his second home repeatedly was also criticised, although he has always insisted he has acted within the rules. But his Tory opponent is hopeful he can overturn Mr Darling's majority, on the back of the general disillusionment with Labour.

Jason Rust, 30, a solicitor and Edinburgh councillor, said the Conservatives were penetrating parts of the constituency that they had never dreamed of.

"There are no 'no-go' areas for us now," he said.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, had also recently told Mr Rust that if he won the seat, it would be the equivalent of the Tories' loss of Enfield Southgate in the 1997 Labour landslide, which saw Tory defence secretary Michael Portillo defeated.

"David Cameron told me I would be doing the country a favour if we remove Alistair Darling. He said it could be our Michael Portillo moment," Mr Rust said.

Within the constituency party, however, there was support for Mr Darling.

Councillor Andrew Burns, who was Mr Darling's agent at the 2001 and 2005 election, said he would not hesitate in backing him again.

"Alistair is an extremely popular and hardworking local MP, and has a very high profile in Edinburgh both because of his tireless work in the constituency – I know, I go out campaigning with him regularly.

"And his reputation as being a Chancellor prepared to take unprecedented action to get us through the current economic crisis.

"There is no prospect of him not being the Labour candidate at the next election."

Mr Burns, who is also leader of the Labour group at Edinburgh City Council, added that there was no inkling of anger at Mr Darling himself.

Councillor Eric Barry, who is also an activist in the Edinburgh South West Labour Party, agreed that Mr Darling would continue to be the MP.

A spokeswoman for the Chancellor declined to comment on predictions that Mr Darling could lose his seat over the expenses row.

"As an MP, his staff costs are assigned to him. He asked his accountant to look at what had been paid out.

"He has another fee he pays for his own personal accounts."

The 'modest and safe' former Trotskyite

FROM a Tory family and private education, through Trotskyite councillor, to the epitome of Brownite centrism, Alistair Darling's political career sounds like a roller-coaster ride.

But for those who have been close to him at the various stages of his political career the reality is something far duller, defined more by steadiness and his unerring image as a safe pair of hands.

It explains why he is just one of three people to have been in the Cabinet continuously since Labour returned to power in 1997, the others being Gordon Brown and Jack Straw.

Friends have said that he is one of the least likely figures in the Cabinet to get caught up in the recent expenses scandal.

"Alistair has always been so modest and safe," said Lord George Foulkes, a former ministerial colleague and ex-fellow Labour MP. "He has always rejected the trappings of power, he's never had security guards, always travelled as cheaply as possible.

"His wife Maggie (Vaughan, a journalist], has always helped him to keep his feet on the ground."

Since 1997 Mr Darling has not been out of the cabinet. Starting as chief secretary to the treasury he has moved steadily but unspectacularly to the second highest office in the UK, Chancellor of the Exchequer. On the way he was secretary of state for work and pensions, secretary of state for transport, secretary of state for Scotland and secretary of state for trade and industry.

"He has always been a safe pair of hands and good at his job," said Lord Foulkes.

But many of his contemporaries and colleagues find his rise surprising considering his background.

He is the great-nephew of Sir William Darling, who was Conservative MP for Edinburgh South (1945-57) and was educated at the private Loretto School. But then in the 1970s he was a Trotskyite regional councillor, although George Kerevan, a former Labour Party colleague at the time, now associate editor of The Scotsman, says that in reality he was more pragmatic.