Gordon Brown

**James Gordon Brown** CH (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.

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.

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. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983. At the beginning for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. 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. Controversial moves included the abolition of Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) relief in his first budget, and the removal in his final budget of the 10 per cent "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.

After an initial rise in opinion polls, Brown's time as Prime Minister saw his approval ratings fall. The Labour Party suffered its worst local election results in 40 years. 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.

## Infobox (prime minister)

- **honorific-prefix**: The Right Honourable
- **name**: Gordon Brown
- **image**: Gordon Brown (2008).jpg
- **caption**: Official portrait of Brown,  2008
- **office**: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- **monarch**: Elizabeth II
- **1namedata**: Peter Mandelson, The Lord Mandelson
- **term start**: 27 June 2007
- **term end**: 11 May 2010
- **predecessor**: Tony Blair
- **successor**: David Cameron
- **office1**: Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party
- **deputy1**: Harriet Harman
- **1namedata1**: Peter Watt
Ray Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury, Ray Collins
- **2blankname1**: Labour Party Chair (2001), Chairman
- **2namedata1**: Harriet Harman
- **term start1**: 24 June 2007
- **term end1**: 11 May 2010
- **predecessor1**: Tony Blair
- **successor1**: Ed Miliband
- **office2**: Chancellor of the Exchequer
- **primeminister2**: Tony Blair
- **term start2**: 2 May 1997
- **term end2**: 28 June 2007
- **predecessor2**: Kenneth Clarke
- **successor2**: Alistair Darling
- **office3**: Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
- **term start3**: 24 July 1992
- **term end3**: 2 May 1997
- **1blankname3**: Shadowing
- **1namedata3**: Norman Lamont
Kenneth Clarke
- **predecessor3**: John Smith (Labour Party leader), John Smith
- **successor3**: Kenneth Clarke
- **office4**: Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Shadow Secretary of State <br/ >for Trade and Industry
- **leader4**: Neil Kinnock
- **term start4**: 2 November 1989
- **term end4**: 24 July 1992
- **1blankname4**: Shadowing
- **1namedata4**: Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, Nicholas Ridley
Peter Lilley
Michael Heseltine
- **predecessor4**: Bryan Gould
- **successor4**: Robin Cook
- **office5**: President of the Board of Trade, Shadow President of the Board of Trade
- **leader5**: Neil Kinnock
- **term start5**: 2 November 1989
- **term end5**: 24 July 1992
- **1blankname5**: Shadowing
- **1namedata5**: Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, Nicholas Ridley
Peter Lilley
Michael Heseltine
- **predecessor5**: Bryan Gould
- **successor5**: Robin Cook
- **office6**: Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
- **leader6**: Neil Kinnock
- **term start6**: 13 July 1987
- **term end6**: 2 November 1989
- **1blankname6**: Shadowing
- **1namedata6**: John Major
Norman Lamont
- **predecessor6**: Bryan Gould
- **successor6**: Margaret Beckett
- **office7**: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament
for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (UK Parliament constituency), Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (2005–2015)
Dunfermline East (UK Parliament constituency), Dunfermline East (1983–2005)
- **term start7**: 9 June 1983
- **term end7**: 30 March 2015
- **predecessor7**: Dick Douglas (Dunfermline (UK Parliament constituency), Dunfermline)
- **successor7**: Roger Mullin
- **birth name**: James Gordon Brown
- **birth place**: Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland
- **party**: Labour Party (UK), Labour
- **children**: 3
- **alma mater**: University of Edinburgh (BA 1971, MA 1972, PhD 1982)