Gordon Brown

James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician. He served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and was the leader of the British Labour Party. He was the Labour MP Representative for the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath UK Constituency.

The Right Honourable Gordon Brown HonFRSE
Official portrait of Brown, c. 2008
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 27 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Monarch	Elizabeth II
First Secretary	The Lord Mandelson (2009–10)
Preceded by	Tony Blair
Succeeded by	David Cameron
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 24 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Deputy	Harriet Harman
General Secretary	Peter Watt Ray Collins
Chairman	Harriet Harman
Preceded by	Tony Blair
Succeeded by	Ed Miliband
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 2 May 1997 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Kenneth Clarke
Succeeded by	Alistair Darling
Shadow Cabinet positions Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 24 July 1992 – 2 May 1997 Leader John Smith Margaret Beckett (Acting) Tony Blair Shadowing Norman Lamont Kenneth Clarke Preceded by John Smith Succeeded by Kenneth Clarke Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry In office 2 November 1989 – 24 July 1992 Leader Neil Kinnock Shadowing Nicholas Ridley Peter Lilley Michael Heseltine Preceded by Bryan Gould Succeeded by Robin Cook Shadow President of the Board of Trade In office 2 November 1989 – 24 July 1992 Leader Neil Kinnock Shadowing Nicholas Ridley Peter Lilley Michael Heseltine Preceded by Bryan Gould Succeeded by Robin Cook Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury In office 13 July 1987 – 2 November 1989 Leader Neil Kinnock Shadowing John Major Norman Lamont Preceded by Bryan Gould Succeeded by Margaret Beckett
Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (2005–2015) Dunfermline East (1983–2005)
In office 9 June 1983 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Dick Douglas (Dunfermline)
Succeeded by	Roger Mullin
Personal details
Born	James Gordon Brown (1951-02-20) 20 February 1951 (age 73) Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Sarah Macaulay ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	3
Parents	John Ebenezer Brown Jessie Elizabeth Souter
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh (BA 1971, MA 1972, PhD 1982)

He was born at Orchard Maternity Nursing Home in Giffnock, Scotland and is married to Sarah Macaulay. Their daughter Jennifer Jane died as a baby. They have two sons, John Macaulay and James Fraser. Brown is blind in his left eye after a sports injury but he has a replacement eye made of glass.^[1]

Brown took over as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Tony Blair resigned on 27 June 2007. Before this, he had been Chancellor of the Exchequer since May 1997.

Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh. He spent his early career working as a television journalist.^[2][3] He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983. At the beginning for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.^[4][5] As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he was also First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.

Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's financial and fiscal policy architecture. For example, was the interest rate setting power transferred to the Bank of England. This was done by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by giving the responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority.^[6] Controversial moves included the abolition of Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) relief in his first budget,^[7][8] and the removal in his final budget of the 10 per cent "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.^[9]

After an initial rise in opinion polls,^[10] Brown's time as Prime Minister saw his approval ratings fall. The Labour Party suffered its worst local election results in 40 years.^[11][12] Despite public and parliamentary pressure on his leadership, he remained leader of the Labour Party. He announced on 6 April 2010 that there would be a general election on 6 May 2010, in which Labour came second, with 258 seats. Brown resigned, and Conservative leader David Cameron became Prime Minister.

On 14 July 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-moon named Brown UN Special Envoy for Education.

In 2017, he made a statement about Scotland having a "full blown mental health emergency" citing the hiring of mental health staff by a charity.^[13][14][15]

References

1. Minty, Simon (2 June 2010). "Disability Is Everywhere: Coalition reverie, aliens and film review". BBC. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
2. Kearney, Martha (14 March 2005). "Brown seeks out 'British values'". BBC News. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
3. "The Gordon Brown story". BBC News. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
4. "Brown is UK's new prime minister". BBC News. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
5. "Gordon Brown". BBC News. 19 November 2007. Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
6. "Memorandum of Understanding between HM Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority" (PDF). HM Treasury, Bank of England, FSA. 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
7. Halligan, Liam (16 October 2006). "Brown's raid on pensions costs Britain £100 billion". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
8. "Pension blame falls on Brown". The Guardian. 22 July 2002. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
9. "Q&A: 10p tax rate cut". The Guardian. 21 April 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
10. "New British PM gives party biggest poll lead in two years". The Philippine Star. 15 July 2007. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
11. "Labour suffers wipeout in its worst local election results". The Times. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
12. Labour slumps to historic defeat, BBC News, 8 June 2009
13. "Gordon Brown says Scotland has 'mental health emergency'". STV News. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
14. Narwan, Gurpreet (11 September 2017). "Gordon Brown: 'There is a full-blown mental health emergency'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
15. "Brown warns of 'mental health emergency'". BBC News. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2017.