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This article is about the British Chancellor of the Exchequer. For the rugby union player of the same name, see Gordon Brown (rugby player).

The Right Honourable James Gordon Brown, Ph.D (born 20 February 1951) is Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom and a Scottish Labour Party politician. He was MP for Dunfermline East from 1983 - 2005, then Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005 following a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland. Brown has headed HM Treasury since May 1997, making him the longest continuously serving Chancellor since Nicholas Vansittart (1812-1823). He is to become Prime Minister after the retirement of Tony Blair.

Early and private life

His father, John, was a Church of Scotland minister. While a youngster at primary school in Fife, the teacher asked what he wanted to do when he grew up, Brown replied that he wanted to be a burglar. Some might say that he has succeeded in this ambition! While at school he suffered a detached retina in a rugby accident, so his left eye is now made of glass. Brown's hobbies include lying to the public, withdrawing funding from the areas that require it the most, and performing party tricks including the "wobbly bottom lip". Brown read History at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with First Class Honours. Brown would stay at Edinburgh to complete his Doctorate, titled 'The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918-29'. According to biographer Tom Bower, Brown originally intended his thesis to cover the development of Labour from the seventeenth century onwards, but evolved to more modestly describe "Labour's struggle to establish itself as the alternative to the Conservatives ".

Before entering Parliament and while still a student, Brown had been elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh and Chairman of the University Court, and edited "The Red Paper on Scotland". Brown lectured at that university and then at Glasgow College of Technology before working as a journalist at Scottish Television. In the 1979 general election, Brown fought the Edinburgh South constituency, but lost to the Conservative candidate, Michael Ancram. In 1986, he published a biography of the Independent Labour Party politician James Maxton, the subject of his PhD thesis.

Brown married Sarah Macaulay at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, on 3 August 2000 after a four-year courtship. Mrs. Brown is a public relations executive and was, until 2001, Chief Executive of Hobsbawm Macaulay, the consultancy firm she owned with Julia Hobsbawm. On 28 December 2001, a daughter, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely; she died on 8 January 2002. Their second child, a son, John, was born on 17 October 2003. In January 2006 it was announced that they were expecting a third child in July.

Brown is a Raith Rovers F.C. supporter - a team he has supported since boyhood - and he is a member of the consortium which led a community buy out of the club in December 2005.

Brown's brothers are John Brown, Head of Public Relations, Glasgow City Council and Andrew Brown, a PR consultant for British utility company EDF Energy.

Early Parliamentary career

He was elected to Parliament as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983, becoming opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1985, then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992.

After the sudden death of John Smith, Brown was tipped as a potential party leader, but he stepped aside and allowed Tony Blair to become leader. It has long been rumoured that a deal was struck between the two men at the Granita restaurant in Islington, that Blair promised to give Brown complete control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the 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 by and large remained united in public despite reported rifts.

As Shadow Chancellor, Brown worked hard to establish an image of fiscal competence, and to reassure business and the middle class that Labour could be trusted to run the economy without fuelling inflation. He also committed Labour to following the Conservatives' spending plans for the first two years after taking power; his 2000 Spending Review foreshadowed a large expansion of government spending.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

On taking office as Chancellor, Brown sprung a surprise by giving the Bank of England operational independence in the conduct of monetary policy, and thus responsibility for setting interest rates - a policy devised by Ed Balls, his long-time chief economic adviser and now an MP. While he has adhered to Labour's election pledge to make no increases to the standard or higher rates of income tax, he has raised taxes in other areas like consumption. In his April 2002 budget, he raised national insurance to pay for health spending, a tax on income separate from personal income tax. His other crackdowns on 'tax loopholes' has raised the UK tax burden from 39.3% of GDP in 1997 to 42.4% in 2006, according to the OECD, overtaking Germany. . To have achieved this result with only one explicit tax rise has fuelled accusations of his imposing stealth taxes. Brown points to two accomplishments: growth and employment. An OECD report shows that, between 1997 and 2006, UK economic growth has averaged 2.7% - higher than the Eurozone's 2.1% but lower than any English-speaking country. UK unemployment is 5.1%, down from 7% in 1997 and lower than the Eurozone's 8.1%.

In 2001 Brown sold 60% of the UK's gold reserves. The decision was latterly criticised as the price later picked up from what then 20-year lows meaning Brown could have raised £2 billion extra for the sale had he waited. . .

In October 1997, he 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. He declared in June 2003 they had not been met.

Brown's lengthy period as Chancellor of the Exchequer has set several records. He is the longest-serving Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer (ahead of Denis Healey, who was Chancellor for 5 years and 2 months from 5 March 1974 to 4 May 1979). On 15 June 2004, he became the longest continuous serving Chancellor of the Exchequer since the Reform Act 1832, passing the figure of 7 years and 43 days set by David Lloyd George (1908–1915). However, William Gladstone was Chancellor for a total of 12 years and 4 months in the period from 1852 to 1882 (although not continuously). As he has commented upon on several occasions, his Chancellorship has overseen the longest period of sustained economic growth in the UK which started in 1993 on the United Kingdom's exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

In October 2004 Tony Blair announced he would not lead the party into a fourth general election, but would serve out a full third term. Brown has for some time promoted the cause of acting to reduce Third World debt and following the Asian Tsunami Disaster this has positioned Brown well inside the curve of popular opinion in the UK. Political controversy over the relationship between Brown and Blair in advance of the prospective UK general election, 2005 continued up to that election, when Blair won a reduced majority, a reduced vote share for the Labour Party, and then confirmed that he would not fight the next general election.

The two appear for the time being to have put their differences behind them. The Labour Party even produced an election broadcast, showing the two debating policy and making jokes about their 'troubled' relationship. Continued reports of disagreements still appear in the British media, though.

Prospects of succeeding Blair

In 2005 Brown was listed in Time Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world: Blair did not feature. This could be attributed to the widespread expectation that Brown has no serious rivals as the next Prime Minister.

These proposals and recent appearances are widely interpreted as preparation for when Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister and so make him appear to be of more 'leadership material' - and to replace his Scottish identity with a British one in the public mind. Blair, however, has made no indication that he is preparing to step down before the end of his third term. Brown remains the only candidate spoken of seriously in Westminster. But doubts grow, and Labour defeat in Dunfermline and West Fife in the 2006 by-election, after a campaign largely led by Brown (and covering the constituency in which he lives) questioned the Chancellor's ability to win elections without Blair charming the middle classes.

Notes

1. Gordon Brown as Rector at Edinburgh University
2. BBC News
3. Boston Globe - Brown's views on global warming
4. 2005 election results page for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath
5. Labour lose in Brown's home constituency?

Bibliography

Works

• Brown, Gordon (1989). Where There's Greed: Margaret Thatcher and the Betrayal of Britain's Future. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1851582282.
• Brown, Gordon (ed.); Cook, Robin (ed.) (1987). Scotland: The Real Divide - Poverty and Deprivation in Scotland. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 0906391180.
• Brown, Gordon (1986). Maxton: A Biography. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1851580425.

Biographies

• Peston, Robert (2005). Brown's Britain: How Gordon Runs the Show. Short Books. ISBN 1904095674.
• Bower, Tom (2003). Gordon Brown. HarperCollins. ISBN 000717540X.
• Keegan, William (2003). The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown. John Wiley. ISBN 0470846976.
• Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage. Fourth Estate. ISBN 1841154733.
• Routledge, Paul (1998). Gordon Brown: The Biography. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684819546.

Others

• Rawnsley, Andrew (2001). Servants of the people: The inside story of New Labour. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140278508.

See also

• Blair Brown Deal
• 54th UK general election
• UK general election, 2005
• UK general election, 2001
• UK general election, 1997
• UK general election, 1992
• UK general election, 1987
• UK general election, 1983

External links

• HM Treasury - Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• 10 Downing Street - Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Gordon Brown MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Gordon Brown
• BBC News - Tour diary: Gordon Brown in Africa January 2005 trip about his 'Marshall plan for Africa'
• Open Directory Project - Gordon Brown directory category

• 1951 births
• Glaswegians
• Chancellors of the Exchequer
• Members of the Privy Council
• Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from Fife constituencies
• UK Labour Party politicians
• Scottish journalists
• University of Edinburgh alumni
• Living people
• People with an ocular prosthetic