Nick Brown

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Nick Brown
Official portrait, 2020
Chief Whip of the House of Commons
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office
3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byGeoff Hoon
Succeeded byPatrick McLoughlin
In office
2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byAlastair Goodlad
Succeeded byAnn Taylor
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office
27 July 1998 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJack Cunningham
Succeeded byMargaret Beckett
Member of Parliament
for Newcastle upon Tyne East
Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend (1997–2010)
Assumed office
9 June 1983
Preceded byMike Thomas
Majority15,463 (35.7%)
Chair of the Finance Committee
In office
26 May 2021 – 7 March 2023
Preceded byLilian Greenwood
Succeeded bySharon Hodgson
In office
21 July 2015 – 17 October 2016
Preceded byJohn Thurso
Succeeded byRosie Winterton
Junior ministerial offices
Minister for the North East
In office
28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Commons
Treasurer of the Household
In office
28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byBob Ainsworth
Succeeded byTommy McAvoy
Minister of State for Work
In office
11 June 2001 – 13 June 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byDes Browne
Shadow portfolios
Shadow Cabinet
2016–2021Chief Whip
2010–2010Chief Whip
1994–1994Commons Leader
Shadow Frontbench
1995–1997Deputy Chief Whip
1994–1995Health
1992–1994Deputy Commons Leader
1988–1992Treasury
1985–1988Solicitor General
Personal details
Born
Nicholas Hugh Brown

(1950-06-13) 13 June 1950 (age 73)
Hawkhurst, Kent, England
Political partyIndependent (since 2023)
Other political
affiliations
Labour (until 2023)
Residence(s)Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Alma materUniversity of Manchester (BA)
Websitewww.nickbrownmp.com

Nicholas Hugh Brown (born 13 June 1950) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne East since 1983. A member of the Labour Party until his resignation in 2023, he sits as an independent in Parliament. He attended the Cabinet of the United Kingdom as Chief Whip from 1997 to 1998, and again from 2008 to 2010, and Agriculture Minister from 1998 to 2001.

Brown is the fifth-longest-serving MP in the House of Commons. He is also the longest-serving Labour Chief Whip, discontinuously holding the position under six leaders (Blair, Brown, Harman, Miliband, Corbyn and Starmer).

Early life[edit]

Nicholas Hugh Brown was born in Hawkhurst, Kent,[1] and brought up in Tunbridge Wells. He was educated at Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys and the University of Manchester.[2] After graduating from university, Brown worked in the advertising department of Procter & Gamble. He then[when?] became a legal adviser to the Northern Region of the GMBATU, later GMB, based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Political career[edit]

Early political career: 1980–1997[edit]

In 1980, Brown was elected to Newcastle City Council as a Labour councillor, representing the Walker ward.

Brown was chosen as the new Labour Party candidate for the parliamentary seat after Mike Thomas, the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne East, defected to the SDP. Brown easily retained the seat for Labour at the 1983 general election. Originally elected to the Commons in the same year as Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, Brown was initially close to both men, but over time became his namesake Brown's staunchest ally, though the two are unrelated.

Brown was first appointed to Labour's frontbench team in 1985 as a shadow solicitor general. In 1988, he was moved to the position of Treasury spokesperson before briefly becoming shadow spokesperson for health between 1994 and 1995.

In the 1994 Labour leadership election, he supported Gordon Brown and acted as his unofficial campaign manager and, according to biographer Paul Routledge, advised against his withdrawing from the contest in Blair's favour.

In 1995, Brown was appointed as Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Commons and played a central role in Parliament in trying to defeat the Conservative government's parliamentary agenda.

Government: 1997–2010[edit]

Following Labour's election victory in 1997, he was appointed as Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons, but stayed there only for just over a year, to then be moved to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Tony Blair's first ministerial shuffle in July 1998. This change, which followed the publication of the Routledge biography earlier that year, was widely seen as a demotion, and ascribed to his close connection with Gordon Brown.

His tenure as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food saw several animal health crises, ending with the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak. Brown's handling of the outbreak was criticised by some and used to attack the government, though his handling of the crisis maintained the support of the farming and food industries and the veterinary profession throughout the crisis. Suggestions that a vaccination strategy should have been practised in preference to the culling of hundreds of thousands of animals, made with the benefit of hindsight, did not help his cause, and he was demoted to Minister of State for Work, with non-voting Cabinet rank, after the general election of 2001. In June 2003, he was dropped from the Government altogether.

In 2004, he was one of the organisers of a backbench rebellion against the government's proposals for the introduction of tuition fees, but hours before the vote announced that he had received significant concessions from the Government and would now support it. Some suspected that the Chancellor had placed considerable pressure on him to back down and the affair cost Brown some credibility.

On 29 June 2007, Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and immediately appointed Nick Brown as the Regional Minister for the North East and simultaneously as the new Deputy Chief Whip.

Following a government reshuffle in 2008, Gordon Brown returned Nick Brown to his original government position of Government Chief Whip, whilst retaining his position as Minister for the North East.

In 2009, Brown was appointed to investigate the legitimacy of expense claims by Labour MPs between 2004 and 2008. According to The Daily Telegraph in this period Brown himself claimed a total of £87,708 for his constituency home.[3]

Brown's mortgage interest repayments for 2007–8 totalled £6,600, but he also claimed a total of £23,068, just £15 below the maximum allowable amount for the year. The claim included £4,800 for food – the maximum allowable amount – £2,880 for repairs and insurance, £2,880 for services, £897.65 for cleaning, £1,640 for phones and £1,810 for utilities. Brown, however, has said that he saved the taxpayer a considerable amount of money by turning down a Government car and driver upon being made Chief Whip, the annual cost of which would have been around £100,000.[4]

Opposition: 2010–present[edit]

On 29 September 2010, newly elected Labour Party leader Ed Miliband asked Brown to stand down as Chief Whip due to the need for a "break from the past".[5]

On 29 January 2011, during the News of the World phone hacking affair, Brown said that his landline may have been bugged in 1998, around the time of his being outed.[6] He was also contacted by an undisclosed police force in the West of England in 2003, who told him that they were pursuing a phone-tapping prosecution and he was one of those who may have been targeted. The case collapsed when it reached court and full details of the allegations were never disclosed. Brown said that: "Given that it was near [Prince Charles' home] Highgrove, my assumption was that this might involve the Royal Family. But I was never explicitly told that."[6]

In 2014, Brown publicly opposed his party's proposal to scrap the position of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), citing the effectiveness of the three PCCs in North East England at the time.[7]

Ahead of the 2016 EU membership referendum, Brown stated he supported remaining in the European Union.[citation needed]

On 6 October 2016, Brown was appointed by Jeremy Corbyn as Chief Whip of the Labour Party, and thus became Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons.[8]

Brown was reappointed as Labour Chief Whip by Sir Keir Starmer after the latter's victory in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.[9] This reappointment meant that Brown was the only person to have held the role for three non-consecutive terms, as well as under six different leaders (Blair, Brown, Harman, briefly Miliband, Corbyn and Starmer) across four decades. Brown left the role of Chief Whip for the third time as a result of Starmer's Shadow Cabinet reshuffle in May 2021. On 26 May 2021, Brown returned as chair of the Finance Committee.[10]

In September 2022, Brown was suspended from the Labour Party following allegations concerning an event 25 years previously, details of which were not made public.[11][12] On 12 December 2023, he resigned from the Labour Party in protest at the unresolved disciplinary process. He also announced that he would not be contesting the next election.[11]

Personal life[edit]

Brown is a holder of the freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne award,[1] a supporter of Humanists UK, a member of GMB,[13] and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.[14] He is known to have a love for classical music,[15] which developed during his time at Manchester University. Brown is a member of the Labour Friends of Israel group.[16]

In 2011, Brown came out as gay after a former lover contacted the News of the World offering to sell his story. In a speech, he announced: "The sun is out – and so am I."[17]

From 2012 until 2022, he was a Non-Executive Director of the Mariinsky Theatre Trust (the Anglo-Russian friendship organisation that supports the work of the Mariinsky Theatre in the UK). He is a governor of Walker Riverside Academy, a patron of Leeds Youth Opera and a trustee of the Biscuit Factory art exhibition in Shieldfield, Newcastle.[18] He formerly chaired the all-party parliamentary group for motorcycle speedway racing.[19]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Honorary Freedom of the City" (PDF). Newcastle.gov.uk. March 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Nicholas Brown – Parliamentary candidates". Ukpolitics.telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  3. ^ Rayner, Gordon; Swaine, Jon (19 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: Nick Brown claims £18,800 for food without receipts". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2 February 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  4. ^ Green, William (12 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: North East Minister opens up". Evening Chronicle. Newcastle upon Tyne. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  5. ^ "Ed Miliband asks chief whip Nick Brown to step aside". BBC News. 29 September 2010. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  6. ^ a b Milmo, Cahal (29 January 2011). "My landline was bugged as papers tried to 'out' me, says Nick Brown". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 29 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  7. ^ Walker, Jonathan (17 October 2014). "Labour MP Nick brown Urges Party Not to Scrap Police and Crime Commissioners". Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner.
  8. ^ Bush, Stephen (13 October 2016). "Watch out Corbynsceptics, Nick Brown is Coming to Get You". New Statesman. London. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  9. ^ Bartlett, Nicola; Bloom, Dan; Milne, Oliver (6 April 2020). "Keir Starmer's new Labour shadow cabinet unveiled LIVE – with Corbyn allies out". Mirror. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  10. ^ "Rt Hon Nicholas Brown Elected Chair of the Finance Committee". UK Parliament. 26 May 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  11. ^ a b Walker, Peter (12 December 2023). "Nick Brown resigns from Labour over 'complete farce' disciplinary process". The Guardian.
  12. ^ "Veteran MP Nick Brown suspended from Labour Party". BBC News. 7 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  13. ^ "Rt Hon Nick Brown MP". humanism.org.uk. 22 October 2013. Archived from the original on 7 April 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  14. ^ "National Secular Society Honorary Associates". National Secular Society. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  15. ^ Hencke, David (3 October 2008). "Government reshuffle: Profile: Nick Brown". The Guardian.
  16. ^ "LFI Supporters in Parliament". Labour Friends of Israel. Archived from the original on 2 October 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  17. ^ "My landline was bugged as papers tried to 'out' me, says Nick Brown". The Independent. 29 January 2011.
  18. ^ "Nick Brown MP biography". Nick Brown MP. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  19. ^ "UK Parliament: Register Of All-Party Groups (as at 30 July 2015): Motorcycle Speedway". Retrieved 5 February 2021.

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Newcastle upon Tyne East
Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend (19972010)

1983–present
Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Acting

1994
Succeeded by
Preceded by Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons
1997–1998
Succeeded by
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
1997–1998
Preceded by Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
1998–2001
Succeeded byas Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
New office Minister of State for Work
2001–2003
Succeeded by
Preceded by Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Commons
2007–2008
Succeeded by
Treasurer of the Household
2007–2008
New office Minister for the North East
2007–2010
Position abolished
Preceded by Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons
2008–2010
Succeeded by
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
2008–2010
Preceded by Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons
2010
Succeeded by
Preceded by Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons
2016–2021
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Chief Whip of the Labour Party in the House of Commons
1997–1998
Succeeded by
Preceded by Deputy Chief Whip of the Labour Party in the House of Commons
2007–2008
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Whip of the Labour Party in the House of Commons
2008–2010
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Whip of the Labour Party in the House of Commons
2016–2021
Succeeded by