Former British finance minister Alistair Darling, who steered the country's economy and banking system through the shock of the global financial crisis in 2007-08, has died aged 70 after undergoing treatment for cancer, his family said on Thursday.

Darling was named chancellor of the exchequer by former prime minister Gordon Brown in June 2007, just as the crisis was brewing at leading financial institutions. The upheaval eventually sent Britain into what was then its deepest recession since World War Two.

The former lawyer oversaw the state rescue of British lender Northern Rock, tackling the first run on a retail bank in Britain since the 19th century, just a few months into the job.

In October 2008, he led a 37 billion-pound (US$47 billion) government bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS to help them survive the credit crunch, effectively nationalising some of Britain's biggest banks in the process.

Darling was a member of parliament representing the centre-left Labour Party between 1987 and 2015 and he served as chief secretary to the Treasury and headed various ministries before being put in charge of the finance ministry by Brown.

"The much-loved husband of Margaret and beloved father of Calum and Anna, died after a short spell in Western General Hospital under the wonderful care of the cancer team," his family said in a statement.

He was described by friends as a clever, calm and rational man who could be sarcastic and funny in private.

Born in 1953, Darling attended the private Loretto School on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland's oldest boarding school, before studying law at Aberdeen University. He worked as a lawyer in Edinburgh before becoming a barrister in 1984.

Politicians from all the main political parties paid tribute to him, praising his intellect and kindness.

"I never met anyone who didn't like him," Brown's predecessor as prime minister, Tony 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." (Reuters)