Gordon Brown/Timelines

Parliamentary Career

Opposition

1983 Elected Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East as a member of the Labour Party under the leadership of Neil Kinnock.

1967 Appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury

1989 Appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

1992 Appointed Shadow Chancellor

John Smith replaces Neil Kinnock as Leader of the Opposition.

1994 Labour Party leadership election following the death of John Smith

Gordon Brown agrees not to stand against Tony Blair - who is then elected leader

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Constitutional innovations1997-98.

• Independence for the Bank of England
• Five tests for Euro membership
• Code for Fiscal Stability
• Pre-budget reports

Fiscal contraction 1997-2000

• the budget balance changed from a deficit of 2.4 per cent of national income in 1996-7 to a surplus of 2.4 per cent in 2000-01, and the national debt fell from 42.5% of in 1996–97 to 30.7% of national income in 2000–01

Public sector investment and fiscal expansion 2000-2007

• increased investment in health and education
• the current budget balance moved from a surplus of 2.4 per cengt of national income in 2000–01 to a deficit of 0.3 per cent of national income by 2007–08 and the national debt rose to 36.5 per cent of national income in 2007–08.

International activities 1999-2007

• Chair of the International Monetary and Finance Committee 1999-2007

Prime Minister

2007-2009 Financial Crisis

• £500 billion bank rescue plan , including powers to take equity stakes in ailing banks and an undertaking to guarantee interbank loans.
• October 2008 Britain's bank rescue plan adopted in the EU and the USA

2010 Deficit reduction plans

• Fiscal Responsibility Act - imposes a duty on the Treasury to ensure that by the financial year ending 2014 public sector net borrowing as a percentage of GDP is at least halved from its level for the financial year ending 2010, and to make continuing reductions thereafter.

Personal history

• 1951 Born, Glasgow, Son of John Brown, a Presbeterian church minister
• 1954 The family move to Kirkaldy
• 1961 Starts at Kirkaldy High School
• 1966 Passes A-level examinations with 5 A grades
• 1967 Starts at Edinburgh University

  becomes a serious Rugby player, but sporting career is ended by an accident in which he loses the sight of his left eye

• 1970 Awarded a Master of Arts (with 1st class honours)
• 1973 Elected Student Rector, Edinburgh University

  Becomes a member of the Scottish Labour Party's National Executive

• 1976: Politics lecturer, Glasgow College of Technology

  Selected as prospective parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh South

• 1980: Journalist (current affairs) Scottish Television
• 1982: Doctor of Philosophy, Edinburgh University
• 1983: Selected as prospective parliamentary candidate for Dunfermline East - and elected to parliament
• 1996: Appointed Member of Privy Council
• 2000: Marriage to Sarah Macaulay