Tom Richmond: How Darling the great survivor went from Labour's Mr Boring to Mr Indispensable

You may suggest Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister accused of being a bully and who has been pulling the nation's purse strings for nearly 13 years.

There's also David Cameron, the Tory leader who still expects to win the election despite his plunging poll ratings. Or there's York-born Vince Cable, the public's favourite politician and the plain-speaking man who many voters would like to see running the Treasury after he correctly foresaw the banking crisis and its consequences.

Yet one man towers above this triumvirate. Step forward Alistair Darling, the long-suffering Chancellor of the Exchequer and who allowed his dour demeanour to characterise his career before he was thrust centre-stage by the global credit crunch.

Some may say that he's Brown's "stooge" – and should have done more to stop the Prime Minister's reckless spending – but he's the Cabinet minister who holds the initiative ahead of this month's Budget when the Government will have to choose between electoral extravagance or fiscal soundness.

And, furthermore, the Scotsman's reputation has been enhanced by the Brown bullying scandal – and, in particular, his refusal to retract his comments when he accused the Prime Minister's aides of unleashing the "forces of hell" after he predicted, correctly, the length and depth of the recession.

"Of course I stand by it – all of it, not just half of it, all of it," said Darling without a hint of regret.

Contrast this candour with the Labour leader's obfuscation when confronted with the "forces of hell" assertion and claims that Brown had accused his predecessor Tony Blair of ruining his life when the former PM refused to set a definitive date for the handover of power, and allowed the uncertainty to fester.

"Given that they are both completely wrong, and that you can almost laugh them off, they are so ridiculous," said a tetchy Brown who effectively accused his Chancellor of being a liar.

Who do you believe? Brown or Darling? At a time when honesty has become an election theme, I know who I think is being more frank with voters – and it is certainly not the Prime Minister who was described by the leading political commentator Fraser Nelson as being the master of dressing up 50p as 1.

Some will argue that Darling under-estimated the scale of the recession and over-estimated the recovery. That may be so, but were these Budget projections his own – or those of his Downing Street neighbour? My guess is the latter, given the abuse that the Chancellor suffered when he first went public on the scale of the slump.

Yet it is Darling's personal attributes that have seen his political – and economic – stock rise, despite the seriousness of the recession.

Unlike others, he's been unable to blame his predecessor for the mess that he inherited – and, let's face it, Britain was borrowing beyond its means long before Darling entered the Treasury. If he'd done so, he would have been implicating Brown (and deservedly so).

Don't forget that it was Brown who banned the use of the "r-word" – recession – until he inadvertently blurted it out in the House of Commons after claiming, falsely, that the era of "boom and bust" economy was over.

Darling's quiet dignity has also seen him brush off personal attacks by sidekicks to Brown without murmur. He's survived several attempts to remove him by simply getting on with the job while also treating his opponents (both within Labour and Opposition ranks) with respect – a lesson that George Osborne, the Conservative's prospective Chancellor, has yet to learn.

His banking bailout is also working, although, with hindsight, he

should have been tougher on the issues of bonuses. Banks like RBS would not still be afloat, and cutting their losses from 24.3bn to 3.6bn, without Darling's intervention – a policy opposed by Osborne at the

time. This needs remembering. So, too, is the fact that unemployment has not reached three million – as many feared.

Some have likened Darling's "forces of hell" remarks to "a dead man talking" because he will not be Chancellor after the election. If Labour win against the odds, the perceived wisdom is that he'll be sacked. If the Tories win, the debate is immaterial.

I disagree. Darling knows what is right for Britain – and he's determined that his legacy is a last Budget that puts Britain on the road to recovery. For that to happen, he has to be his own man, rather than accept the orders from the so-called "bully" living in 10 Downing Street.

He clearly believes public spending cuts have to be escalated. He's also against tax sweeteners on an election eve which would put the public finances under greater strain.

The only person who appears to be disagree is Brown, the PM and First Lord of the Treasury.

Given how he has become indispensable to the Government, Darling should stick to his guns – and put the public interest before party interest. If not, he has the capacity to resign and bring down Brown.

If his economic outlook holds sway, he will be doing Britain a huge favour and he could, once again, find himself following Gordon Brown's footsteps – this time as leader of the Labour Party or as a pivotal figure in a coalition government if there's a hung parliament after the election. For, unlike many senior politicians on both the left and right, the current Chancellor has the capacity to work with others and build a consensus.

On entering the Treasury nearly three years ago, he was advised that there were few officials with any experience of a recession.

There are even fewer civil servants with experience of coalition or even national governments; hence why Alistair Darling, "Mr Boring" to many, may just prove to be "Mr Indispensable" in the weeks and months ahead. You can bank on not having heard the last of this great survivor.