Gordon Brown announces he will stand down as MP • Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to stand down as an MP at the next general election. The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP made the announcement at his constituency Labour party meeting on Monday evening. He was chancellor for a decade between 1997 and 2007 before spending three years in 10 Downing Street. Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Brown had been a towering figure, while David Cameron said he had given a huge amount to public life. Praising his legacy, which Mr Miliband said included the minimum wage and the preservation of the United Kingdom following Septembers Scottish independence referendum, Mr Miliband said his predecessor as Labour leader will obviously be missed but will carry on serving the Labour Party in other ways. Under Mr Browns leadership, Labour lost power in 2010 after thirteen years in government, recording its worst general election result since 1983. Since then, Mr Brown has kept a generally low profile, making an intervention in a debate on the phone-hacking scandal and later entering the Scottish independence campaign. Charity work Mr Brown, who first entered Parliament in 1983, confirmed his intentions in a speech to his constituency Labour Party later on Monday. The BBCs assistant political editor Norman Smith said it was not a huge surprise, with Mr Brown having been a relatively infrequent visitor to Westminster since the 2010 general election. Since resigning as prime minister and Labour leader, Mr Brown has focused on charity work and his role as United Nations special envoy for global education
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 19:52:19 +0000
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