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James Gordon Brown MP (born 20 February 1951) is a British Labour politician and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Brown assumed office in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Before this, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government from 1997 to 2007 under Blair.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a TV journalist.
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Quotations
My first rule – the golden rule – ensures that over the economic cycle the Government will borrow only to invest, and that current spending will be met from taxation.
Hansard, 6 ser, vol 297 col 304 (2 July 1997), From the Brown's first Budget speech.
I said that this would be a Budget based on prudence for a purpose and that guides us also in our approach to public spending.
Hansard, 6 ser, vol 308 col 111 (17 March 1998), From the 1998 Budget speech.
Encyclopedia
James Gordon Brown MP (born 20 February 1951) is a British Labour politician and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Brown assumed office in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Before this, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government from 1997 to 2007 under Blair.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a TV journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also holds the positions of 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 monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy, and by largely benign economic conditions. His most controversial moves were the abolition of Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) relief in his first budget - a move that received criticism for effectively wiping out defined benefit or final salary pension schemes in the UK. - and removal of the 10p tax rate in his final 2007 budget.
His time as PM has been of mixed fortune, facing repercussions of the credit crunch and the associated nationalisation of Northern Rock, the 10p tax rate row, rising oil and petrol prices, and increased inflation. Brown has also suffered as a result of investigations into improper party donation accusations, a costly political battle over 42 day detention and heavy by-election defeats, notably Glasgow East. Despite an initial increase in personal and Labour popularity following his appointment as Leader and PM, Brown has presided over a dramatic decline in poll approval ratings personally and for the party. During the summer of 2008 speculation arose of a potential challenge to Brown's leadership, but the threat of a contest receded during October following the Labour Party Conference, the emergence of the financial crisis and Labour's win in Glenrothes after a number of by-election losses. He is the eighth Scottish Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the ninth non-English Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Early life and career before parliament
Gordon Brown was born in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. His father was John Ebenezer Brown (1914–1998), a minister of the Church of Scotland and a strong influence on Gordon. His mother Jessie Elizabeth Souter, known as Bunty, died in 2004 aged 86. She was the daughter of John Souter, a timber merchant. Gordon was brought up with his brothers John and Andrew Brown in a manse in Kirkcaldy — the largest town in Fife, Scotland across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. In common with many other notable Scots, he is therefore often referred to as a "son of the manse". Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes. At age 16 he wrote that he loathed and resented this "ludicrous" experiment on young lives.
He was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the age of only 16. He suffered a retinal detachment after being kicked in the head during an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school. He was left blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and lying in a darkened room for weeks at a time. Later at Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the same symptoms in his right eye. Brown underwent experimental surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and his eye was saved. Brown graduated from Edinburgh with First Class Honours MA in 1972, and stayed on to complete his PhD (which he gained in 1982), titled The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918-29. It should be noted, however, that despite his doctorate, Brown is not often referred to as "Dr Brown".
In 1972, while still a student and with strong connections with the previous Dean of Admissions, Brown was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh, the convener of the University Court. Brown served as Rector until 1975, and he also edited The Red Paper on Scotland. From 1976 to 1980 he was employed as a lecturer in Politics at Glasgow College of Technology - in the 1979 general election, Brown stood for the Edinburgh South constituency and lost to the Conservative candidate, Michael Ancram. From 1980 he worked as a journalist at Scottish Television, later serving as current affairs editor until his election to parliament in 1983.
Election to parliament and opposition
Gordon Brown was elected to Parliament on his second attempt as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983 general election and became opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1985. In 1986, he published a biography of the Independent Labour Party politician James Maxton, the subject of his PhD thesis. Brown was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1987 to 1989 and then Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992.
Having led the Labour Movement Yes campaign, refusing to join the cross-party Yes for Scotland campaign, during the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum, while other senior Labour politicians - including Robin Cook, Tam Dalyell and Brian Wilson - campaigned for a No vote, Brown was subsequently a key participant in the Scottish Constitutional Convention, signing the Claim of Right for Scotland in 1989.
After the sudden death of Labour leader John Smith in May 1994, Brown was tipped as a potential party leader, but did not contest the leadership after Tony Blair became favourite. It has long been rumoured a deal was struck between Blair and Brown at the former Granita restaurant in Islington, in which Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the leadership election. Whether this is true or not, the relationship between Blair and Brown has been central to the fortunes of "New Labour", and they have mostly remained united in public, despite reported serious private rifts.
As Shadow Chancellor, Brown worked to present himself as a fiscally competent Chancellor-in-waiting, to reassure business and the middle class that Labour could be trusted to run the economy without fuelling inflation, increasing unemployment, or overspending — legacies of the 1970s. He publicly committed Labour to following the Conservatives' spending plans for the first two years after taking power.
Following a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, Brown became MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath at the 2005 election.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Brown's ten years and two months as Chancellor of the Exchequer made him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history.
The Prime Minister's website singles out three achievements in particular from Brown's decade as Chancellor: presiding over "the longest ever period of growth", making the Bank of England independent and delivering an agreement on poverty and climate change at the G8 summit in 2005. However, critics of Brown's record as Chancellor point out that he was fortunate to inherit a strong economy from the Conservatives.
Acts as chancellor
- Bank of England independence: On taking office as Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown gave the Bank of England operational independence in monetary policy, and thus responsibility for setting interest rates through the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. He also changed the inflation measure from Retail Price Index to Consumer Price Index and transferred responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority.
- Spending: Once the two-year period of following the Conservatives' spending plans was over, Brown's 2000 Spending Review outlined a major expansion of government spending, particularly on health and education. In his April 2002 budget, Brown raised national insurance to pay for health spending. Brown changed tax policy in other ways, such as the working tax credits.
- Growth: An OECD report shows UK economic growth averaged 2.7% between 1997 and 2006, higher than the Eurozone's 2.1%, though lower than in any other English-speaking country. UK unemployment is 5.5%, down from 7% in 1997 and lower than the Eurozone's average of 8.1%.
- Euro: In October 1997, Brown took control of the United Kingdom's membership of the European single currency issue by announcing the Treasury would set five economic tests to ascertain whether the economic case had been made. In June 2003 the Treasury indicated the tests had not been passed.
- Gold sales: Between 1999 and 2002 Brown sold 60% of the UK's gold reserves at $275 an ounce. It was later attacked as a "disastrous foray into international asset management" as he had sold at close to a 20-year low. He pressured the IMF to do the same, but it resisted. The gold sales have earned him the pejorative nickname "Golden Brown", after the song by The Stranglers.
- Spectrum auctions: Under Brown, telecom radio frequency auctions gathered £22.5 billion for the government. By using a system of sealed bids and only selling a restricted number of licences, they extracted high prices from the telecom operators. Germany at this time applied a similar auction; these together caused a severe recession in the European telecoms development industry (2001 Telecoms crash) with the loss of 100,000 jobs across Europe, 30,000 of those in the UK. But, as Paul Klemperer, one of the designers of the auctions, points out, "[t]he United States held no 3G auctions, yet telecoms companies lost just as much: in fact, they lost more." This quote however is deliberately mis-leading; and comes from a designer of the auctions as a defence. It has to be understood that American 3g services are run over conventional frequencies shared with other mobile services. Therefore the frequency auctions in the USA were not specifically for 3g frequencies. Two auctions were run in the USA, the first being cancelled and re-run (for less revenue) due to damage caused to the industry. The Americans realised their mistake and tried to rectify it. The British and German chancellors copied the North American first auction; which had failed. To copy a failed economic model is normally considered a serious error of judgement.
- Debt relief and development: Brown believes it is appropriate to remove much of the unpayable Third World debt but does not think all debt should be wiped out. On 20 April 2006, in a speech to the United Nations Ambassadors, Brown outlined a "Green" view of global development.
Tax
In the 1997 election and subsequently, Brown pledged to not increase the basic or higher rates of income tax. Over his Chancellorship, he reduced the basic rate from 23% to 20%. However, in all but his final budget, Brown increased the tax thresholds in line with inflation, rather than earnings, resulting in fiscal drag. Corporation tax fell under Brown, from a main rate of 33% to 28%, and from 24% to 19% for small businesses.
In 1999, Brown introduced a lower tax band of 10%. He abolished this in his last budget in 2007 to reduce the basic rate from 22% to 20%, increasing tax for 5 million people, and, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies leaving those earning between under £18,000 as the biggest losers.
Analysis of policies as chancellor
- Growth: Brown states that his chancellorship had seen the longest period of sustained economic growth in the history of the United Kingdom. The details in Brown's growth figures have been challenged.
- Anti-poverty: The Centre for Policy Studies found that the poorest fifth of households, which accounted for 6.8% of all taxes in 1996–7, accounted for 6.9% of all taxes paid in 2004-5. Meanwhile, their share of state benefit payouts dropped from 28.1% to 27.1% over the same period.
- Tax: According to the OECD UK taxation has increased from a 39.3% share of gross domestic product in 1997 to 42.4% in 2006, going to a higher level than Germany. This increase has mainly been attributed to active government policy, and not simply to the growing economy.
- Pensions: Conservatives have accused Brown of imposing "stealth taxes". A commonly reported example resulted in 1997 from a technical change in the way corporation tax is collected, the indirect effect of which was for the dividends on stock investments held within pensions to be taxed, thus lowering pension returns and contributing to the demise of most of the final salary pension funds in the UK. The Treasury contend that this tax change was crucial to long-term economic growth.
Other policy stances as chancellor
Links with nuclear power industry
A link was reported between Brown's brother Andrew and one of the main nuclear lobbyists, EDF Energy, given the finding that the government did not carry a proper public consultation on the use of nuclear power in its 2006 Energy Review. Attention has also been drawn to the fact that the father-in-law of Brown's closest adviser Ed Balls, Tony Cooper (father of the Labour minister Yvette Cooper) has close links with the nuclear industry. Cooper was described as an "articulate, persuasive and well-informed advocate of nuclear power over the last ten years" by the Nuclear Industry Association on his appointment as Chairman of the British Nuclear Industry Forum in June 2002. He is also a member of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and was appointed to the Energy Advisory Panel by the previous Conservative administration.
Run up to succeeding Blair
- Main articles Labour Party leadership election, 2007 and Timeline for the Labour Party leadership elections, 2007
In October 2004 Tony Blair announced he would not lead the party into a fourth general election, but would serve a full third term. Political controversy over the relationship between Brown and Blair continued up to and beyond the 2005 election, which Labour won with a reduced parliamentary majority and reduced vote share. The two campaigned together but the British media remained — and remains — full of reports on their mutual acrimony.
Blair, under pressure from within his own party, announced on 7 September 2006 that he would step down within a year. Brown was the clear favourite to succeed Blair for several years with experts and the bookmakers; he was the only candidate spoken of seriously in Westminster. Appearances and news coverage leading up to the handover were interpreted as preparing the ground for Brown to become Prime Minister, in part by creating the impression of a statesman with a vision for leadership and global change. Blair famously described Brown as the "great clunking fist", supposedly as a warning to his political opponents. Sceptics have said Blair's description was a deliberate attempt to label Brown as an unsubtle and one-dimensional policial operator.
Brown is the first prime minister from a Scottish constituency since the Conservative/SUP Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1964. He is also one of only five prime ministers who attended a university other than Oxford or Cambridge, along with the Earl of Bute (Leiden), Lord John Russell (Edinburgh), Andrew Bonar Law (University of Glasgow), and Neville Chamberlain (Mason Science College, later Birmingham).
On 9 September 2006 Charles Clarke said in an interview that the Chancellor had "psychological" issues he must confront and accused him of being a "control freak" and "totally uncollegiate". Brown was also "deluded", Clarke said, to think Blair can and should anoint him as his successor now. Environment Secretary David Miliband stressed his support for Brown.
From January 2007 the media reported Brown had now "dropped any pretence of not wanting, or expecting, to move into Number 10 in the next few months" — although he and his family use the more spacious 11 Downing Street. This enabled Brown to signal the most significant priorities for his agenda as Prime Minister; speaking at a Fabian Society conference on 'The Next Decade' in January 2007, he stressed education, international development, narrowing inequalities (to pursue 'equality of opportunity and fairness of outcome'), renewing Britishness, restoring trust in politics, and winning hearts and minds in the war on terror as key priorities.
In March 2007 Brown's character was attacked by Lord Turnbull who worked for Brown as Permanent Secretary at the Treasury from 1998 to 2002. Turnbull accused Brown of running the Treasury with "Stalinist ruthlessness" and treating Cabinet colleagues with "more or less complete contempt". This was especially picked-up on by the British media as the comments were made on the eve of Brown's budget report.
Prime Minister
Brown ceased to be Chancellor and, upon the approval of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 27 June 2007. Like all modern Prime Ministers, Brown concurrently serves as the First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service, and is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and, hence, also a Privy Counsellor. He is also Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. He is the sixth post-war prime minister, of a total of 12, to assume the role without having won a general election.
Policies
Brown has proposed moving some traditional prime ministerial powers conferred by royal prerogative to the realm of Parliament, such as the power to declare war and approve appointments to senior positions. Brown wants Parliament to gain the right to ratify treaties and have more oversight into the intelligence services. He has also proposed moving some powers from Parliament to citizens, including the right to form "citizens' juries", easily petition Parliament for new laws, and rally outside Westminster. He has asserted that the attorney general should not have the right to decide whether to prosecute in individual cases, such as in the loans for peerages scandal.
During his Labour leadership campaign, Brown proposed some policy initiatives, suggesting that a Brown-led government would introduce the following:
- End to corruption: Following the cash for honours scandal, Brown emphasised cracking down on corruption. Brown has announced a new ministerial code which sets out clear standards of behaviour for ministers.
- Constitutional reform: Brown has not stated whether he proposes a U.S.-style written constitution — something the UK has never had — or a looser bill of rights. He said in a speech when announcing his bid that he wants a “better constitution” that is “clear about the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen in Britain today”. He plans to set up an all-party convention to look at new powers for Parliament. This convention may also look at rebalancing powers between Whitehall and local government. Brown has said he will give Parliament the final say on whether British troops are sent into action in future.
- Housing: House planning restrictions are likely to be relaxed. Brown said he wants to release more land and ease access to ownership with shared equity schemes. He backed a proposal to build new eco-towns, each housing between 10,000 and 20,000 homeowners — up to 100,000 new homes in total.
- Health: Brown intends to have doctors' surgeries open at the weekends, and GPs on call in the evenings. Doctors were given the right of opting out of out-of-hours care two years ago, under a controversial pay deal, signed by then-Health Secretary John Reid, which awarded them a 22% pay rise in 2006. Brown stated that the NHS was his "top priority", yet he had just cut the capital budget of the English NHS from £6.2bn to £4.2bn.
The Brown government was involved in controversy in April 2008 over the decision to scrap the 10p Income Tax Band and he was forced into making concessions. In the local elections on 1 May 2008, Labour suffered their worst results in 40 years finishing in third place with a projected 24% share of the national vote. Subsequently the party has seen the loss of by-elections in Nantwich and Crewe and Henley as well as slumps in the polls. A by election in Glasgow East triggered by the resignation of David Marshall saw the Labour party struggle to appoint a candidate, eventually settling for a 5th choice, a sitting MSP in the Scottish Parliament Margaret Curran. The SNP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have all derided the party for their disorganised nature with Alex Salmond commenting "This is their 'lost weekend' - they don't have a leader in Scotland, they don't have a candidate in Glasgow East, and they have a prime minister who refuses to come to the constituency". A former Labour spin doctor has commented that the loss of a safe seat in Glasgow (one of the safest Labour seats in the country) would indicate to Gordon Brown that any MP with a majority of less than 13,500 would be unsafe and his position as Prime Minister would be untenable.
The unthinkable result became a reality when the seat experienced a massive swing of 22.54% in one of Labours safest heartland areas, and the constituency was lost to the Scottish National Party's John Mason who took 11,277 votes with Labour just 365 behind.
Foreign policy
Brown remains committed to the Iraq War, but said in a speech in June 2007 that he would "learn the lessons" from the mistakes made in Iraq.
Brown made his first overseas trip as Prime Minister to Berlin, where he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In a speech given to the Labour Friends of Israel in April 2007, Brown stated:
Many of you know my interest in Israel and in the Jewish community has been long-standing…My father was the chairman of the Church of Scotland's Israel Committee. Not only as I've described to some of you before did he make visits on almost two occasions a year for 20 years to Israel — but because of that, although Fife, where I grew up, was a long way from Israel with no TV pictures to link us together — I had a very clear view from household slides and projectors about the history of Israel, about the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people, about the enormous suffering and loss during the Holocaust, as well as the extraordinary struggle that he described to me of people to create this magnificent homeland.
Brown said in a letter published 17 March 2008 that the United Kingdom will hold an inquiry into the Iraq war -- but not soon. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will skip the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, on 8 August 2008 in Beijing, it was reported on 9 April 2008. But, he will not be boycotting the Olympics and will attend the closing ceremony, on 24 August 2008. Brown has been under intense pressure from human rights campaigners to send a message to China, concerning the 2008 Tibetan unrest. But his decision not to attend the opening ceremony is not an act of protest, the decision was made weeks ago and was not a stand on principle.
Diplomatic relationship with the U.S.
There has been widespread speculation on the nature of the UK's relationship with the United States under Brown's government. A Washington, D.C. speech by Brown's close aide Douglas Alexander was widely reported as both a policy shift and a message to the U.S: "In the 21st century, strength should be measured on what we can build together…we need to demonstrate by our deeds, words and our actions that we are internationalist, not isolationist, multilateralist, not unilateralist, active and not passive, and driven by core values, consistently applied, not special interests."
However Downing Street's spokesman strongly denied the suggestion that Alexander was trying to distance Britain from U.S. foreign policy and show that Britain would not necessarily, in Tony Blair's words, stand "shoulder to shoulder" with George W. Bush over future military interventions: "I thought the interpretation that was put on Douglas Alexander's words was quite extraordinary. To interpret this as saying anything at all about our relationship with the U.S. is nonsense."
Brown personally clarified his position; "We will not allow people to separate us from the United States of America in dealing with the common challenges that we face around the world. I think people have got to remember that the relationship between Britain and America and between a British prime minister and an American president is built on the things that we share, the same enduring values about the importance of liberty, opportunity, the dignity of the individual. I will continue to work, as Tony Blair did, very closely with the American administration."
The "non-election"
Gordon Brown caused controversy during September and early October 2007 by letting speculation continue on whether he would call a snap general election. Following the negative reaction to his visit to British troops in Iraq during the Conservative Conference, David Cameron's 'off the cuff' speech and an opinion poll showing Labour 6% behind the Conservative Party in key marginal seats, he finally announced that there would be no election in the near future and seemed to rule out an election in 2008. He was subsequently accused by his political opponents as being a ditherer and indecisive. Cameron accused Brown of "bottling" the election because of opinion polls, which Brown denied.
Military covenant
November 2007 saw Brown face intense criticism of not adhering to the 'military covenant', a convention within British politics stating that in exchange for them putting their lives at risk for the sake of national security, the armed forces should in turn be suitably looked after by the government. Criticism has come from several former Chiefs of Defence, including General Lord Guthrie, Admiral Lord Boyce, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Craig, Field Marshal Lord Bramall and Field Marshal Lord Inge. Poor housing, lack of equipment and adequate healthcare provisions are some of the major issues Brown has been accused of neglecting.
European Union
Brown has continued to be dogged by controversy about not holding a referendum on the EU Treaty of Lisbon. On the morning of 13 December 2007, Foreign Secretary David Miliband had to stand in for the Prime Minister at the official signing ceremony in Lisbon of the EU Reform Treaty, which was attended by all other European heads of government. Brown was otherwise engaged at the House of Commons, appearing before the Liaison Committee, and travelled to Portugal to sign the treaty in the afternoon which the EU leaders had signed in the morning. Brown come under heavy fire from opponents on both sides of the House and in the press, who suggested that neither Brown nor Labour had a mandate to ratify the treaty without public assent. Conservative leader David Cameron pointed to Labour's 2005 manifesto, which had pledged to give British public a referendum on the original EU Constitution. Brown argued that the Treaty significantly differed from the Constitution, and as such did not require a referendum. He also responded with plans for a lengthy debate on the topic, and stated that he believed the document to be too complex to be decided by referendum.
42-Day Detention
Following the rejection of a previous bill under Tony Blair's government to allow for terror suspects to be detained for up to 90 days without charge, Brown championed a new bill extending this pre-charge detention period to 42 days. The bill was met with opposition on both sides of the House and, facing a growing backbench rebellion, it is alleged that a number of deals were done behind the scenes to ensure a victory for Brown in the vote on this issue. In the end, the bill passed with just 9 votes. Many commentators view this as a pyrrhic victory as Brown had to rely upon the support of a renegade Conservative MP, Ann Widdecombe, and the votes of a handful of Democratic Unionist MPs. In a session of Prime Ministers' Questions some weeks later, David Cameron challenged Brown to concede on record that "no deals were done" in ensuring the bill was passed. Brown stood up before the House and gave a one-word response of "Yes". To uproar, Cameron proceeded to quote from a letter written by Geoff Hoon, Labour's Chief Whip, to the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, Keith Vaz, in which Hoon expressed deep thanks for Vaz's support and in addition signed off the letter with the line "I trust that you will be appropriately rewarded." Hoon has claimed that this was just a joke between friends but others have viewed this letter as proof that deals were indeed done behind the scenes and that Brown was lying when he went on record as stating that no such deals were done.
The House of Lords defeated the bill, with Lords characterising it as "fatally flawed, ill thought through and unnecessary", stating that "it seeks to further erode [...] fundamental legal and civil rights".
Plots against leadership
The first signs of internal disquiet towards Brown's policies surfaced as early as May 2008. Brown, in his 2007 budget, his last as Chancellor, abolished the 10% income tax rate for the lowest earners (5.1 million people), increasing their rate to the next highest, 20%. Earners who fell within the 22% tax rate band had their rate reduced to 20%, and tax allowances were also made for over-65s. These measures came into effect in April 2008. The "10p tax rate cut" as it was commonly referred to, was sharply criticized by Frank Field and several other backbenchers. Field also made comments saying that Brown did not seem to be enjoying his job. Health Secretary Alan Johnson believed that Field was motivated primarily by a personal dislike of Brown, and Field later apologized, saying that he had regretted allowing his campaign to "become personal". In the face of protests such as this though, Chancellor Alistair Darling cut the tax rate for 22 million people, and borrowed around £2.7 bn to reimburse those on lower and middle incomes who had suffered.
In the summer of 2008, Brown's leadership was presented with a fresh challenge as a large number of senior MPs openly called for him to resign. This event was dubbed the 'Lancashire Plot', as two backbenchers from North West England urged him to step down and a third questioned his chances of holding on to the Labour Party leadership. Several MPs argued that if Brown did not recover in the polls by early 2009, he should call for a leadership contest. However, certain prominent MPs, such as Jacqui Smith and Bill Rammell, suggested that Brown was the right person to lead Britain through its economic crisis.
A second assault upon Brown's premiership was launched in the autumn of that year, when Siobhain McDonagh, a MP who during her time in office had never voted against the government, spoke of the need for discussion over Brown's position. McDonagh, a junior government whip, was sacked from her role shortly afterwards, on September 12. Whilst McDonagh did not state that she wanted Brown deposed, she implored the Labour party to hold a leadership election. McDonagh spoke of a "huge number" of Labour MPs who wanted a leadership election; her views were somewhat substantiated in the following days when several Labour MPs, including Field, Joan Ryan (who applied, as McDonagh had, for leadership nomination papers, and became the second rebel to be fired from her job), Jim Dowd, Greg Pope, and a string of others who had previously held positions in government, made clear their desire for a contest. In an unrelated incident, 12 backbenchers signed their names to a letter criticizing Brown in Progress magazine. Eric Joyce, one of the MPs who signed this letter, said that Brown's future hinged on his performance at the upcoming Labour party conference.
A Downing Street source responded to these revelations by stating that, "The Blairites have been talking up the idea of loads of ministers resigning. But the best they can come up with is an assistant government whip." Tony Lloyd, chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party, labelled the rebellion a "bit of a sideshow", and Emily Thornberry MP called Brown the "best qualified" to lead Britain through the economic crisis of 2008. The Labour party admitted that it had received letters from a small number of MPs querying why no nomination papers had been released.
In the face of this growing speculation over Brown's future, the majority of his ministers also backed him to lead the party, and two, Harriet Harman and David Miliband, vigorously denied that they were preparing leadership bids. After the shock loss that Labour suffered in the Glasgow East by-election in July, Harman, the deputy leader of the party, suppressed rumours regarding her intentions, saying that Brown was the "solution", not the "problem"; Home Secretary Smith, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Cabinet Office Minister Ed Miliband all re-affirmed their support for Brown. The deputy Prime Minister under Blair, John Prescott, also pledged his support. Foreign Secretary David Miliband was then forced to deny that he was plotting a leadership bid, when on July 30, an article written by him in The Guardian was interpreted by a large number in the media as an attempt to undermine Brown. In the article, Miliband outlined the party's future, but neglected to mention the Prime Minister. Miliband, who had been forced to quell rumours that he would run against Brown in the leadership election of 2007, responded to this by saying that he was confident Brown could lead Labour to victory in the next general election, and that his article was an attack against the fatalism that had dogged the party since the loss of Glasgow-East. Miliband continued to show his support for Brown in the face of the challenge that emerged in September, as did Business Secretary John Hutton, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, and Chief Whip Geoff Hoon.
Depictions of Brown in popular culture
Brown's reputed dourness while holding a high public office comes across in the way he is portrayed on both the screen — where he was played by David Morrissey in the Stephen Frears directed TV movie The Deal and by Peter Mullan in the TV movie The Trial of Tony Blair — and stage: he features as a character in the 2007 Musical TONY! The Blair Musical, written by Chris Bush and Ian McCluskey. During its run in York, he was played by Bush, and then by Michael Slater at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and subsequently at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington, London. Also drawing on this perception, radio presenter Nick Abbot plays a sound effect of Darth Vader because of the way Gordon Brown's jaw appears to detach as he breathes in.
In keeping with its tradition of having a comic strip for every Prime Minister, Private Eye features a comic strip, The Broonites (itself a parody of The Broons), parodying Brown's government. The Eye has also started a column titled Prime Ministerial Decree, a parody of statements that would be issued by Communist governments in the former Eastern Bloc. This is in reference to a criticism of Brown having "Stalinist tendencies".
Gordon Brown is generally depicted in newspaper cartoons as being fat - something which he takes offence at.
Gordon Brown was depicted in Season 12 of South Park sitting at a table of world leaders opposite Nicolas Sarkozy in the episode "Canada on Strike".
Brown makes an appearance in the first issue of Marvel Comics' Captain Britain and MI: 13, overseeing Britain's response to the Skrull invasion of Earth.
Married life and family
Brown's early girlfriends included the journalist Sheena McDonald, Marion Caldwell and Princess Margarita, the eldest daughter of exiled King Michael of Romania. She has said about their relationship: "It was a very solid and romantic story. I never stopped loving him but one day it didn't seem right any more, it was politics, politics, politics, and I needed nurturing."
Brown married Sarah Macaulay in a private ceremony at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, on 3 August 2000. On 28 December 2001, a daughter, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely and died on 8 January 2002. Gordon Brown commented at the time that their recent experiences had changed him and his wife:
I don't think we'll be the same again, but it has made us think of what's important. It has made us think that you've got to use your time properly. It's made us more determined. Things that we feel are right we have got to achieve, we have got to do that. Jennifer is an inspiration to us.
They have two children, John Macaulay and James Fraser. In November 2006, James Fraser was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
Sarah Brown generally keeps a low profile, rarely making official appearances either with or without her husband, in contrast to Cherie Blair. She is inevitably much sought after to give interviews, although is reluctant to do so. However, she is patron of several charities, and has written articles for national newspapers related to this. At the 2008 Labour Party Conference, Mrs Brown caused surprise by taking to the stage to introduce her husband for his keynote address.
Despite predictions to the contrary, the Browns have fallen in love with Chequers. They spend most weekends there, the house often being filled with friends, editors, sportsmen and actors, as well as politicians. They have even entertained the Beckhams and local dignitaries like Sir Leonard Figg, revealing a certain "obsession" with the place.
He is also a big fan of heavy metal music, as revealed in the music documentary Anvil, produced by Brown's brother-in-law.
Of his two brothers, John Brown is Head of Public Relations in the Glasgow City Council. His brother Andrew Brown has been Head of Media Relations in the UK for the French-owned utility company EDF Energy since 2004. He was previously director of media strategy at the world's largest public relations firm Weber Shandwick from June 2003 to 2004. Previously he was editor of the Channel 4 political programme Powerhouse from 1996 to 2003, and worked at the BBC from the late 1970s to early 1980s.
Titles and honours
Styles
- Mr. James Gordon Brown (1951–1982)
- Dr. James Gordon Brown (1982–1983)
- Dr. James Gordon Brown MP (1983–1997)
- The Rt Hon Dr. James Gordon Brown MP (1997–present)
Honours
See also
Electoral history:
Works
Biographies
Others
External links
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- 24 June 2007
- , September 26, 2008
- in Encyclopaedia Britannica
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- January 2005 trip about his 'Marshall plan for Africa'
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- Triple A accessible version
- ,
International Socialism — a left wing perspective on Brown's political evolution
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