Gordon Brown: brooding heavyweight comes out of the shadows

PROFILE:

Prashant Rao

STEPS IN: Denounced by critics as a brooding control freak, but lauded by supporters as a misunderstood political heavyweight, Gordon Brown will finally step out of Tony Blair's shadow on Wednesday.

After a decade as chancellor during which the two men's relationship has reportedly soured from tolerant alliance to poisonous rivalry Brown will become prime minister, after replacing Blair as Labour leader Sunday.

Since being named to succeed Blair last month the 56-year-old Scot has battled to shed his uncharismatic image aides say he is genial in private but he will have his work cut out after the media-friendly Blair.

James Gordon Brown was born to a Presbyterian Scottish pastor's family on February 20, 1951. At the age of just 16 he went to Edinburgh University, where he gained a first-class degree in history followed by a doctorate.

He worked as a politics lecturer at his alma mater and Caledonian University, before moving on to Scottish TV, a franchise of Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster, ITV. During those early years, he forged a strong link with the Labour Party, first offering to canvass for them in a by-election when he was 12, and later joining the party officially at 18.

Brown lost his initial attempt to join parliament in 1979, but was elected to represent Dunfermline East in 1983 the same year Blair became an MP and went on to hold various posts in Labour's 18 years of opposition.

Sharing an office in parliament, as well as a desire to modernise the party with Blair, Brown has been described as the man who tutored Blair in national politics.

In 1992, after Labour lost a fourth successive election, he was named Labour's finance spokesman; at the time, he was mentioned, along with Blair, as one of then leader John Smith's potential successors.

Two years later, though, Smith died and according to a popular legend, Brown and Blair made a deal in a north London restaurant whereby Brown would back Blair's leadership bid, and Blair would stand down in favour of Brown as little as four years into a Labour government.

Following Labour's 1997 election victory, Brown was named Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), and within a week he gave the Bank of England, Britain's central bank, full independence to tackle inflation.

In the past decade, in which he has become the longest-serving finance minister without interruption, he has also championed the cause of forgiving developing country debt.

His detractors, however, chide him for his controlling nature a former top civil servant described him as "Stalinist" and a cabinet colleague said he was a "control freak".

Brown's credibility in managing the economy has also been hurt by a string of recent scandals involving the country's state pension fund, while his commitment to fiscal prudence, which earned him the "Iron Chancellor" nickname, has been drawn into question.

The chancellor is reportedly more of an Atlanticist than a Europhile - when Blair wanted to lead Britain into the eurozone, Brown effectively vetoed the decision.

He has also acknowledged that mistakes were made in Blair's biggest foreign policy adventure - Iraq - though he has been broadly supportive of Britain's military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brown has steered Britain to an unprecedented era of sustained growth, high employment, and low interest rates, all despite suffering personal setbacks in recent years.

In January 2002, his first child Jennifer was born prematurely and died 10 days after her birth. He has since had two boys, though the second was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in November, aged just four months.

Through it all, though, it has been his relationship with Blair that has grabbed the headlines and captured the country's attention, with tensions rarely far from the surface.

The chancellor was alleged to be the mastermind of an attempted political coup last September when eight junior members of government resigned in a matter of days, calling for Blair to step down - he denies the charge.

AFP

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Britain prepares to close door on Blair era

Phil Hazlewood

End of an era: Tony Blair's 10 years as British prime minister come to a close on Wednesday when he leaves number 10 Downing Street for the last time to hand over power to his finance minister Gordon Brown.

Ushering in the end of an era, the 54-year-old will shut the highly-polished black door on Britain's most famous street, step into a chauffeur-driven car and drive the short distance to parliament for his final appearance as premier.

At exactly midday he will rise from the green benches of the House of Commons and place a bulging folder on the gilt-edged dispatch box, with the usual cheers and jeers from lawmakers likely to be even louder than usual.

After half an hour of political jousting with Conservative Party leader David Cameron and other lawmakers, he will be gone and taken to see Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to formally hand in his resignation.

As Blair fulfils protocol, Brown, chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) throughout the last decade, will be waiting by the telephone in his office for royal officials to summon him for a long-awaited royal appointment.

As the recently-crowned leader of parliament's largest party, the 56-year-old will finally get his chance to serve the country and ask permission to be the 11th politician to be the 81-year-old queen's prime minister.

The formalities over, Brown will definitively move centre stage after an increasingly impatient wait that often marred his relations with Blair, and set about naming his senior ministers and mapping out future policy.

Blair recently joked that he would probably be "clinging to the doorknocker" of Downing Street on his last day in power but after a seven-week interregnum since he announced his resignation, the reality of his departure is dawning.

On Monday, Blair's official spokesman ran through the prime minister's list of engagements to political reporters at their daily briefing. A statement to parliament Monday on the recent EU treaty summit, a meeting with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Tuesday.

"Wednesday, PMQs (prime minister's questions)," he said, before pausing. "And that's it."

On Thursday, there will be a new official spokesman plus a raft of new special advisers and officials, most of them moving the short distance from Brown's Treasury fiefdom on Whitehall to Downing Street.

And next Wednesday, it will be Brown who steps up to the dispatch box. A number of existing senior ministers are still expected to be alongside him, but possibly in different positions and joined by a few new faces.

It will be Brown who will get on with the business of government, having pledged to continue the substance of Blair's progressive centre-left "New Labour" vision, albeit with some stylistic changes.

He will also be sketching out his plan to ensure an unprecedented fourth successive general election victory for the Labour Party amid speculation he could go to the country as early as next year.

By then, Blair - whose early popularity was soured by the war in Iraq, media manipulation or "spin" and a perceived lack of accountability - will be attempting to re-adapt to life as a backbench member of parliament (MP).

His 127,000-pound (188,000-euro, 254,000-dollar) prime ministerial salary will go but he will be still be paid his 60,000-pound MP's salary and be immediately eligible for a prime minister's pension of nearly 64,000 pounds.

He will also get a further 87,000 pounds to run his office as well as get a police driver and round the clock protection.

He will also be hoping the builders finish work on his new 3.5-million-pound family home in London's grand Connaught Square and mapping out his so far undisclosed future plans.

(AFP)