Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

James Gordon Brown was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. Brown was Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2015. He is the author of The Political Change of Scotland: A History of the Scottish Labour Party and the Labour Party in Scotland.

About Gordon Brown in brief

Summary Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. Brown was Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2015. He was born in Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He suffered a retinal detachment in his right eye at the age of 16 and spent several weeks lying in a darkened room. Brown later played a prominent role in the campaign to maintain the union during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. He is the author of The Political Change of Scotland: A History of the Scottish Labour Party and the Labour Party in Scotland, published by Pluto Press, priced £25.99 (p&p £16.99). He is also the author of The Social Contract: A Social Contract of Scotland, £15.95 (p &p £14.99) and The Social contract of Scotland and the Scottish National Party, £10.99 (£10.95). Brown is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Scotland (RCPS) and the Institute of Fiscal Studies at Edinburgh University (IFS). He has been knighted for services to politics and public administration. He has also been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to the economy. Brown is the son of Jessie Elizabeth and John Ebenezer Brown, a minister of the Church of Scotland. His mother was Jessie Elizabeth ‘Bunty’ Brown, the daughter of John Souter, a timber merchant.

His father was a strong influence on Brown and he is often referred to as a ‘son of the manse’. Brown has a son, Andrew, who is also a politician, and a step-son, Andrew Andrew Brown, who was also a Labour MP. Brown’s son Andrew is a Member of the House of Lords and a Deputy Prime Minister. He also has a daughter, Sophie, who has been a Labour Party MP for Glasgow South East since 2008. Brown is the author of a book on the history of the Labour party, The Political Party and Scotland in 1918–29, titled ‘The Political Change Of Scotland’, which he wrote as part of his PhD in history in 1972. The book was later published as a book of the same name, and he has also written a number of others, including a biography of Tony Blair and a book about his time as Labour leader. Brown also served as Rector of Edinburgh University from 1972 to 1973. He spent his early career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, and was later promoted to become Shadow Chancellor. In 1997 he became the longest-serving holder of that office in modern history. In 2007, he was elected unopposed to replace Tony Blair as Prime Minister and Labour Leader. His government introduced rescue packages in 2008 and 2009 to help keep the banks afloat during the global financial crisis.