David Staines

David Anthony Staines was the British Home Secretary in 1997.

He'd attended University of Oxford: he'd been unpopular, barely scraped a second in a Law degree, and fallen into politics after meeting his future wife, a local activist. He'd become secretary of the college party (with nobody to run against). After several years of trying to get elected, he finally became MP for Eastchester West the year after he secured a legal practice.

In politics, he'd gained the patronage of Lord Edward Greyhaven. Thanks to this and a (false) reputation for honesty, he'd become Home Secretary.

He was part of Greyhaven's coup plot, though he was unaware it was going to involve the Ice Warriors; he believed it was going to use dead aliens. He 'informed' the Director-General of MI5 of a potential upcoming coup in order to, ironically, get security measures in place for the real one. (PROSE: The Dying Days)