Biography

The classic Gordon Brown joke was a reference to the song "Golden Brown" by the Stranglers: "Never a frown with Gordon Brown".

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007.

As a student, he suffered a detached retina in a rugby accident, which left him blind in his left eye despite several operations.

Avid supporter of Raith Rovers Football Club, and is Hononary President of the Raith Rovers Supporters Club.

Romantically linked to Princess Margarata of Romania in the late 1970s.

[on Nicholas Ridley]: There he is, the Secretary of State. No in-tray, no out- tray, just an ash-tray.

I want to lead a government humble enough to know its place - where I will always strive to be - and that is on people's side.

One of my first acts as prime minister would be to restore power to Parliament in order to build the trust of the British people in our democracy. Government must be more open and more accountable to Parliament - for example in decisions about peace and war, in public appointments and in a new ministerial code of conduct.

As a politician I have never sought the public eye for its own sake. I have never believed presentation should be a substitute for policy. I do not believe politics is about celebrity.

It is the fighters and believers who change the world, we've changed the world before and we're going to change the world again. And you know our country faces the biggest choice for a generation, so we need to fight, not bow out, not walk away, not give in, not give up but fight; fight to win for Britain. You know because if anyone says fight doesn't get you anywhere, that politics can't make a difference, that all parties are the same then look what we have achieved together since 1997: the winter fuel allowance, the shortest waiting times in history, crime down by a third, the creation of Sure Start, the cancer guarantee, record results in schools, more students than ever, the Disability Discrimination Act, Devolution, Civil Partnerships, peace in Northern Ireland, the Social Chapter, half a million children out of poverty, maternity pay, paternity leave, child benefit at record levels, the Minimum Wage, the ban on cluster bombs, the cancelling of debt, the trebling of aid, the first ever Climate Change Act. That's the Britain we've been building together, that's the change we choose.