Background

He was born in 1951, Glasgow, Scotland. Brown was the son of John Brown, a Labour Party-supporting Church of Scotland minister, and Elizabeth Brown. The family moved to Kirkcaldy – then the largest town in Fife, across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh – when Gordon was three. Brown was brought up there with his elder brother John and younger brother Andrew Brown in a manse. In common with many other notable Scots, he is therefore often referred to as a "son of the manse".

Education

At age 16 he won a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh (the youngest student to enter the university since World War II), where he immersed himself in student politics, eventually becoming chair of the university’s Labour club. He earned a degree with honours in 1972.

Career

He served as a university lecturer, first at Edinburgh (1975–76) and then at Glasgow College of Technology (now part of Glasgow Caledonian University; 1976–80). Brown left academia for an appointment at Scottish TV (1980–83), where he was a journalist and editor in the current affairs department. In 1982 he completed a doctorate in history at Edinburgh; his dissertation was titled The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland, 1918–29.

In 1974 Brown had helped organize the parliamentary campaign to elect Robin Cook, who would later serve in government with Brown as foreign minister (1997–2001) and leader of the House of Commons (2001–03). Brown himself unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons in 1979 for a seat representing Edinburgh before winning a seat in Parliament in 1983 as MP for Dunfermline East. He became friends with Tony Blair, another new MP, and the two soon found themselves at the forefront of the campaign to modernize Labour’s political philosophy, replacing the goal of state socialism with a more pragmatic, market-friendly strategy. From 1987 he served in Labour’s shadow cabinet, first as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and then as shadow trade and industry secretary. In 1992, following Labour’s fourth successive electoral defeat, Brown was named shadow chancellor of the Exchequer by John Smith, then the Labour Party leader.

Brown was widely regarded as the senior half of the Blair-Brown partnership and the one more likely to eventually become party leader. When Smith died in 1994, however, Blair had overtaken Brown as the favoured candidate of party activists and the wider public. Brown reluctantly stepped aside, reportedly after Blair agreed to support Brown as his eventual successor. Speculation that a deal had been reached was confirmed by Brown in a 2010 interview, though he stated that the decision had not been made at a meeting in Granita, a London restaurant, as previously thought. In 1994 Blair won the party’s leadership, and Brown was subsequently reappointed by Blair as Labour’s shadow chancellor.

In the 1997 general election, Labour won a landslide victory, and Blair became prime minister. Brown was subsequently named chancellor of the Exchequer, and he swiftly took control of almost all policies concerned with the United Kingdom’s domestic economy. He immediately made his mark by ceding the power to set interest rates to the Bank of England, and in October 1997 he announced a set of five key economic tests that would have to be met before Britain adopted the euro (he was generally considered more skeptical than Blair regarding Britain’s joining the euro). Brown disappointed many Labour supporters by largely retaining for the first two years the strict public-spending policies he had inherited from the Conservatives, but by July 1998 he had drawn up new plans that allowed for significantly more spending on health, education, and overseas aid, starting in 1999. In October 1998, as chairman of the Group of Seven’s subgroup of finance ministers, Brown extended his influence and played a key role in helping to establish new international mechanisms to stabilize world financial markets. In 2000 Brown married Sarah Macaulay.

Under Brown’s leadership, Great Britain experienced a period of relatively steady economic growth, but increased public spending and government borrowing became growing concerns. Brown had a strong interest in international economics; he served as the United Kingdom’s governor of the International Monetary Fund and as chair of the organization’s primary decision-making committee and was instrumental in brokering a European agreement in 2005 that would double foreign aid to developing countries. He also set out a policy aimed at environmental sustainability, arguing that for too long economic priorities and environmental protection were seen as mutually exclusive and that instead “economic objectives and our environmental objectives now increasingly reinforce each other.”

The relationship between Blair and Brown had grown somewhat strained, with many loyal to Blair claiming that Brown’s supporters had been undermining Blair’s leadership for several years (indeed, in June 2007 a leaked document surfaced showing that Blair had considered removing Brown as chancellor of the Exchequer after the 2005 election). In September 2006, shortly after the Labour Party fared poorly in local elections—blamed in part on the party’s support of the Iraq War—Blair announced that he would step down as prime minister within a year. Brown subsequently pledged his support for Blair, and Blair in turn later backed Brown to succeed him as Labour Party leader and prime minister.

Brown’s government was severely tested in 2008–09 when a worldwide financial crisis and ensuing recession hit Britain hard. His problems multiplied in the spring of 2009, when against a backdrop of growing unemployment a political scandal erupted, involving the widespread abuse of expense accounts by members of Parliament, including members of Brown’s cabinet, some of whom resigned (a major cabinet reshuffle followed). Largely as a result of the scandal and the recession, Labour’s popularity plummeted, and the party performed very poorly in local British elections and in elections for the European Parliament.

Following the particularly disastrous European elections on June 4, 2009, when Labour secured only 15.7 percent of the vote across the British mainland, there were efforts once again to oust Brown as party leader. James Purnell, the secretary of state for work and pensions, resigned from Brown’s cabinet and claimed that Brown’s “continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely.…I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning.” Brown’s allies worked furiously to ensure that no other minister followed Purnell’s example. None did, but Brown’s authority was visibly weakened. To avoid a challenge, he met with Labour MPs and promised to change the way he led.

Also in 2009 Brown’s efforts to stimulate the economy produced an ever-increasing budget deficit, which weighed down the prime minister’s poll ratings as a general election loomed. In January 2010 two former cabinet members called for a secret ballot on Brown’s leadership, well in advance of the parliamentary election required by law to take place by June 3. Though support for Brown was slow in coming and lukewarm, no vote was taken, and he held on to the party leadership heading into the election. Brown agreed that before the election was held he would testify before the most recent and extensive inquiry into the conduct of the Iraq War. In 2010 the prime minister helped facilitate a deal between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin that would devolve justice and policing power to Northern Ireland by April 2010; stalemate over the issue had threatened possible suspension of devolution and the reimposition of direct rule from London.

In the British general election on May 6, 2010, the Labour Party lost its majority in the House of Commons, finishing second to the Conservatives, but no party achieved a majority. Shortly thereafter Brown announced that he would be stepping down as Labour leader. On May 11, after negotiations to form a coalition government with the third-place-finishing Liberal Democrats failed, Brown tendered his resignation as prime minister.

In 2012 Brown was named UN special envoy for global education. He wrote several books, including The Politics of Nationalism and Devolution (1980; with H.M. Drucker); Maxton (1986); Where There Is Greed (1989); John Smith (1994; with James Naughtie); Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization (2010); and My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharing (2014). In the last book Brown outlined a plan for a new role for Scotland within the United Kingdom, and he became an important spokesman for continued union as the September 18, 2014, referendum on independence for Scotland approached. Brown called for a debate to be held in the House of Commons on the future of the union in the event that the referendum was defeated. He also proposed codification of the purpose of the United Kingdom akin to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, recognition of the Scottish Parliament as permanent and indissoluble, and increased income-taxing powers for Scotland. His impassioned speech in favour of union on the eve of the vote was considered by many to be among the finest of his career. Brown’s very visible role in contributing to the defeat of the referendum (with about 55 percent voting against independence and about 45 percent for it) seemed to promise a return to political prominence for a man many had come to see as a failed prime minister. Brown chose not to stand again for his seat in the May 2015 parliamentary election.

Achievements

• Gordon Brown was one of Britain’s most influential politicians.
  
  He played a prominent role in the campaign surrounding the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, galvanising support behind maintaining the union.

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Life, Our Times - Kindle edition by Gordon Brown. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
  • Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization
  • Britain's Everyday Heroes

Religion

The son of a Church of Scotland minister, Brown has talked about what he calls his "moral compass" and of his parents being his "inspiration". He has, at least ostensibly, been keen to keep his religion a private matter. According to The Guardian, he is a member of the Church of Scotland.

Politics

Brown was 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 said in a letter published on 17 March 2008 that the United Kingdom would hold an inquiry into the war. He is also a member of the lobby group, Labour Friends of Israel.

Brown went to great lengths to empathise with those who lost family members in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. He has often said "War is tragic", echoing Blair's quote, "War is horrible". Nonetheless, in November 2007 Brown was accused by some senior military figures of not adhering to the Military Covenant, a convention within British politics ensuring adequate safeguards, rewards and compensation for military personnel who risk their lives in obedience to orders derived from the policy of the elected government.

Brown did not attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, on 8 August 2008 in Beijing, instead he attended the closing ceremony on 24 August 2008. Brown had been under intense pressure from human rights campaigners to send a message to China, concerning the 2008 Tibetan unrest. His decision not to attend the opening ceremony was not an act of protest, but rather was made several weeks in advance and not intended as a stand on principle.

In a speech in July 2007, Brown clarified his position regarding Britain's relationship with the USA "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 special relationship 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."

Brown and the Labour party had pledged to allow a referendum on the EU Treaty of Lisbon. On 13 December 2007, Foreign Secretary David Miliband attended for the Prime Minister at the official signing ceremony in Lisbon of the EU Reform Treaty. Brown's opponents on both sides of the House, and in the press, suggested that ratification by Parliament was not enough and that a referendum should also be held. Labour's 2005 manifesto 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.

Views

This former Prime Minister of UK was one of the leading voices in supporting Third World Debt causes.

Quotations: "When something really matters, you should never give up or give in."

"Take, therefore, what modern technology is capable of: the power of our moral sense allied to the power of communications and our ability to organize internationally. That, in my view, gives us the first opportunity as a community to fundamentally change the world."

"I hate prejudice, discrimination, and snobbishness of any kind - it always reflects on the person judging and not the person being judged. Everyone should be treated equally."

"I find it quite unusual for people to criticise me for doing what I consider to be my duty."

"Higher energy prices are requiring industry and commerce to examine the costs and efficiency of energy use."

"Climate change is a consequence of the build up of greenhouse gases over the past 200 years in the atmosphere, and virtually all these emissions came from the rich countries."

"Britain can be proud of its response to the tsunami appeal."

"We must then build a proper relationship between the richest and the poorest countries based on our desire that they are able to fend for themselves with the investment that is necessary in their agriculture, so that Africa is not a net importer of food, but an exporter of food."

"In Britain, we are not a secular state as France is, or some other countries."

"You have to live in the future, not the past."

"I never subscribed to what you might call the neo-Conservative position that somehow, at the barrel of a gun, overnight, liberty and democracy could be conjured up."

"Christians do not say that people should be reduced merely to what they can produce or what they can buy - that we should let the weak go under and only the strong survive. No, we say, 'Do to others what you would have them do unto you.'"

"I think fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers - we should look at what young people are saying to us."

"Let us think of ourselves not as 'yes' and 'no' Scots but simply as Scots, and let us be a nation, united again."

Personality

He is known to be of a reserved demeanor.

Physical Characteristics: This famous personality became blind in one eye, following a sporting accident as a teenager. He would have lost his right eye as well, but was saved in the nick-of-time.

Quotes from others about the person

• "The next election will be a flyweight versus a heavyweight. However much the right hon. Gentleman (David Cameron) may dance around the ring beforehand, at some point, he will come within the reach of a big clunking fist." - Tony Blair
  
  "Luckily for the world economy, however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis." - Paul Krugman
  
  "The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks, from Stalin to Mr. Bean." - Vincent Cable
  
  "It is our job to work for the government of the day and so that means working for Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, and we need to do those preparations just to be sure that we're ready for whoever you, the British public, elect and that's core to our civil service values over the last 150 years." - Gus O'Donnell
  
  "What is it that unites, on the left of British politics, George Orwell, Billy Bragg, Gordon Brown and myself? An understanding that identity and a sense of belonging need to be linked to our commitment to nationhood and a modern form of patriotism." - David Blunkett
  
  "As for Gordon Brown - I've described him and Blair as two cheeks of the same arse." - George Galloway

Interests

• Reading, writing, football and tennis

• Sport & Clubs

  Brown is a noted supporter of Kirkcaldy-based football club Raith Rovers and has written articles about his relationship with the club.

Connections

Brown got married to Sarah Macaulay on August 3, 2000. They have two children.

Father:

John Ebenezer Brown

1914–1998

Mother:

Jessie Elizabeth "Bunty" Brown

1918–2004

Spouse:

Sarah Jane Brown

She is a British campaigner for global health and education, founder and president of the children's charity Theirworld, the Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education and the co-founder of A World at School.

Brother:

Andrew Brown

He is a Scottish former journalist and broadcaster who is now a media strategist with EDF Energy.

Daughter:

Jennifer Jane

She was born on n 28 December 2001 and died on 7 January 2002 one day after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Son:

John Macaulay

He was born 17 October 2003.

Son:

James Fraser Brown

He was born on 18 July 2006.

colleague:

David Cameron

Friend:

J. K. Rowling

She is a British novelist, philanthropist, film producer, television producer and screenwriter, best known for writing the Harry Potter fantasy series.

colleague:

Angela Merkel

colleague:

Romano Prodi

colleague:

Tony Blair