Ian Duncan (politician)

Early life

Duncan was born in 1973 and raised in Alyth, Perthshire, where he attended Alyth High School. He achieved a degree in geology from the University of St Andrews, before earning a PhD degree in paleontology from the University of Bristol.

Career before politics

During the late 1990s, Duncan served as a policy analyst for BP's political affairs team where he worked on the company's strategy for emerging economic prospects in post-communist eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In 1999 Duncan became the Deputy Chief Executive, and Secretary for the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, where he developed policy and worked closely with the European Union, namely lobbying for the development of a regional management model which was later adopted by the European Commission.

From 2004-2005 he acted as the Head of Policy & Communication for the Scottish Refugee Council, a charity which offers advice to those taking asylum within Scotland.

Scottish Parliament

Before becoming an MEP, Duncan worked as Head of the EU Office for the Scottish Parliament, a position he held between 2005 and 2011, at which time he was appointed Clerk to the Parliament's European Committee and EU Advisor to the Parliament. He stood down from this role in 2013 to pursue candidacy with the Scottish Conservatives, after Struan Stevenson announced he would not seek re-election.

Member of the European Parliament

As a candidate for the Scottish Conservatives at the 2014 European elections, Duncan campaigned on a platform of delivering reform in the European Union as well as an in-out referendum within three years.

Duncan sat on three committees of the European Parliament - the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Fisheries. He was the European Parliament's Rapporteur on post 2020 reforms to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

In 2017, Duncan was ranked as the 10th most influential MEP on environmental policy in the European Parliament. and the 6th most influential on energy policy </ref>http://www.votewatch.eu/blog/who-are-the-most-influential-meps-on-energy-policy/</ref>. EurActiv ranked Duncan as the 15th most influential politician on energy union in Europe in 2016.

From 2014 Duncan served as the Chief Whip of the UK Conservative Delegation. He was also a Vice-Chair of the Wine, Sprits and Quality Foodstuffs intergroup in the European Parliament.

UK Parliament candidate

Duncan was selected by the Scottish Conservatives as their candidate for Perth and North Perthshire in the 2017 UK General Election. He lost to incumbent Pete Wishart (SNP) by 21 votes.

Scotland Office Minister

The Prime Minister's Office announced in June 2017 that Duncan would be granted a life peerage and thus become a member of the House of Lords, in order to take up his appointment as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland. On 14 July, he was created Baron Duncan of Springbank, of Springbank in the County of Perth.

Personal life

Outside politics Duncan maintains a keen interest in public speaking and has served as the Chairman of English Speaking Union Scotland since 2014, previously acting as its Speech & Debates Officer. He also retains links to his academic background and is a fellow of the Geological Society.

In 2014 Duncan was appointed to the board of advisers of the Schwarzenegger Institute at the University of Southern California, established by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He is a patron of LGBT+ Conservatives and is openly gay.