Gordon Brown

Biography

Gordon Brown was born in Giffnock in 1951 and grew up in Kirkcaldy, Fife, the son of a Church of Scotland minister. He entered the University of Edinburgh at 16, took a first in history and later a doctorate, and was elected rector of the university while still a student. He then lectured in politics at Glasgow College of Technology and worked as a journalist and current affairs editor at Scottish Television.

Elected Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983, he rose through the opposition front bench and became shadow chancellor in 1992. After Labour's 1997 victory he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer for ten years, the longest spell in modern times. He gave the Bank of England control of interest rates, moved banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority, and set the five economic tests that kept Britain out of the euro.

Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Labour leader and prime minister in June 2007 without a contest. His government rescued and took stakes in failing banks during the 2008 financial crisis and passed the Climate Change Act 2008, but Labour lost its majority at the 2010 general election and he resigned.

He stayed in the Commons until 2015 and campaigned for the union in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Since 2012 he has been the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.