Gordon Brown is a British politician who has an estimated net worth of $5 million. Gordon Brown served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 2007-2010.

What is Gordon Brown’s net worth?

Prior to that, from 1997 to 2007 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a Member of Parliament from 1983 until 2015. Brown is most noted for his unprecedented tenure as Chancellor; he presided over the longest time of continuous economic growth in Britain’s history.

Early Life and Education

James Gordon Brown was born on February 20, 1951 in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, Scotland to Jessica and Church of Scotland minister John. With his brothers John and Andrew, he was raised in a manse in Kirkcaldy, Fife. Brown was educated at Kirkcaldy West Primary School and Kirkcaldy High School before being admitted to the University of Edinburgh at just 16 years of age. He graduated from Edinburgh with a degree in history in 1972. A decade later, Brown earned his PhD in history from the university.

Career Beginnings

Before entering politics, Brown was a politics lecturer at Glasgow College of Technology from 1976 to 1980. In 1979, he sought election to Parliament in Edinburgh South but lost to Conservative candidate Michael Ancram. He later worked as a journalist at Scottish Television during the early 1980s.

Member of Parliament

In 1983, on his second campaign for Parliament, Brown won a seat as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East. Later in the decade, he took the positions of Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and then Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. In 1992, he was made Shadow Chancellor. Brown served as MP for Dunfermline East from 1983 until 2005, and then from 2005 to 2015, he was MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

After the Labour Party won a landslide in the 1997 general election, Brown was named Chancellor of the Exchequer by Prime Minister Tony Blair. He would serve in the post for more than ten years, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern British history. During his extremely popular tenure, Brown directed several significant reforms of Britain’s economy, including granting operational independence to the Bank of England, increasing the powers of the Treasury to include domestic policy, and shifting banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. He also created the five economic tests, which prevented the UK from adopting the euro. But while he oversaw the longest period of economic growth in British history, not all of Brown’s moves were without controversy. His decision to abolish advance corporation tax relief, sell off the UK’s gold reserves, and scrap the 10% starting rate of income tax are among the most contentious.

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Prime Minister The heavy favorite to succeed Blair as Prime Minister, Brown announced his bid for Leader of the Labour Party in the spring of 2007. He won the position that June, and following Blair’s resignation, he became the new Prime Minister. During his premiership, which continued the New Labour movement he had fostered with Blair, Brown oversaw the introduction of rescue packages to keep banks afloat during the 2008 financial crisis. Also in 2008, his government passed the world’s first Climate Change Act. In 2009, Brown began an inquiry into Britain’s role in the ongoing Iraq War, and in 2010 he introduced the Equality Act to update and supplement prior anti-discrimination laws. Although Brown was popular immediately after he took over as Prime Minister, his decision not to call a snap election in 2007 saw him criticized, and by 2008, with the onset of the Great Recession, the popularity of the Labour Party had fallen.

The party ultimately lost the 2010 general election, during which Labour lost a total of 91 seats and witnessed a hung parliament. The Conservative Party, having won more seats than any other party, entered coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, and its Leader, David Cameron, became the new Prime Minister. Edward Miliband replaced Brown as Leader of the Labour Party. Post-premiership After he left office, Brown returned to the backbenches and remained MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath until 2015. He also authored the book “Beyond the Crash,” about the effects and possible legacy of the 2008 financial crisis.

In other major activities, Brown took an active leading role in the campaign to keep the UK together during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Elsewhere, he has served as the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and as Ambassador for Global Health Financing at the World Health Organization. In 2024 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour by King Charles II for services to public and charitable services. Personal Life In his earlier life, Brown dated journalist Sheena McDonald and Margarita, Crown Princess of Romania. He later married Sarah Macaulay in 2000; they have two sons, John and James. A daughter, Jennifer, died ten days after her premature birth.