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.Labour slumps to historic defeat, BBC News, 8 June 2009 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.

References

Category:1951 births
Category:Living people
Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Category:British Protestants
Category:Calvinists
Category:Chancellors of the Exchequer
Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs
Category:Members of the British House of Commons for Scottish constituencies
Category:Leaders of the Labour Party (UK)
Category:Politicians from Glasgow
Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Category:Scottish Christians
Category:UK MPs 1983–1987
Category:UK MPs 1987–1992
Category:UK MPs 1992–1997
Category:UK MPs 1997–2001
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Category:UK MPs 2005–2010
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