Gordon Brown’s Premiership 2007-2010

Introduction

Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 through almost unopposed nomination by the Labour Party and its affiliated organisations. He almost called an election to reinforce his mandate soon afterwards but demurred at the last minute. His premiership never really recovered from this and in the 2010 General Election his party lost its majority in the House of Commons. After some protracted negotiations with the Liberal Democrats regarding a possible coalition broke down Brown resigned on 11 May 2010 and a Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government under David Cameron assumed power.

Key Issues

Electoral Reform: After showing interest in electoral reform prior to the 1997 election, opposition from within the Labour party caused the plans to be quietly dropped. For the first part of his premiership Brown continued this policy. In the aftermath of the Expenses Scandal and with the prospect of a coalition government increasingly likely from mid 2009 however, Brown appeared to have a ‘deathbed conversion’ to the cause. In its 2010 Manifesto Labour committed itself to supporting a referendum on introducing the AV (Alternative Vote) System. When the results of the general election became clear he went even further, offering the liberal Democrats AV without a referendum and a referendum on a proportional system of voting if they would back him in coalition.

Referenda: No national referenda were carried out under Brown’s premiership. In addition to the commitment to a referendum on electoral reform the only other referendum issue was the absence of one on Britain’s signing of the Lisbon Treaty which changed Britain’s relationship with the EU. Brown refused one on the grounds that it was a modification of existing treaties not a change of the constitution, a claim hotly disputed by the Conservatives.

Prime Ministerial powers: In the wake of controversy over the Iraq war and Tony Blair’s ‘presidential’ style of government, Brown came to office promising to reign in the ‘royal prerogative’ of  the Prime minister – the powers possessed by the office that did not require Parliamentary approval including the ability to declare war. These changes were to be embedded in a written constitution. That document failed to materialise, and such changes that did take place were based on parliamentary resolution not statute law giving them less weight and the government more room to manoeuvre regarding their implementation.

Pressure Groups: Brown’s period in office was characterised by a haemorrhaging of funding from private donors to the Labour party. As a result the party became increasingly reliant on the trade unions for fiscal backing, increasing their power as insider pressure groups. Their relationship between the two caused controversy when it was felt that the government’s impartiality in responding to labour relations crises such as the British Airways cabin crew strike of 2010 had been compromised.

Expenses Scandal: Revelations in the Daily Telegraph regarding the abuse of expenses by MPs of all parties during 2009 resulted in a spectacular loss of public credibility for the House of Commons. Notable casualties were the Speaker Michael Martin, the first to resign since the 17^th century and the Labour MP Ian Gibson who stood down as MP for Norwich North and whose seat was taken by Conservative Chloe Smith. It resulted in an unsuccessful attempt to create a written constitution by Brown and a commitment to greater transparency in government. Increasingly government expenditure became published on the internet, culminating in a Coalition commitment to publish all MPs expenses and all government expenses over £500 online.

Ideology: It was believed that Brown would take Labour in a more left wing direction than his predecessor. There were apparently left wing measures introduced, such as the raising of income tax to 50% for the richest plus the nationalisation of struggling banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. However these measures were driven more by the need to contain the global financial crisis than by ideological commitment, and Labour’s 2010 manifesto remains firmly committed to New Labour principles of enterprise and the free market.

The state and ‘big government’: Under Brown the public sector continued to expand until public sector accounted for 43% of GDP expenditure compared to 39% in 2001/2. This trend attracted criticism when the massive UK public debt came under public scrutiny in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Brown’s refusal to cut the public sector until 2011 and to fund it by a ‘jobs tax’ raise in National Insurance undoubtedly contributed to his fall from office in 2010.

Legacy

On balance Brown’s brief premiership will probably regarded as a failure, particularly when compared to his predecessor Blair whose legacy such as the war in Afghanistan and ‘presidential government’ proved something of a political ‘poisoned chalice’. Brown handled some issues well such as the Northern Rock crisis early in his premiership. However his inability to delegate effectively and erratic, occasionally panic stricken approach to personal relations crippled his premiership, a situation exacerbated by several failed attempts to remove him by his own party. His fall from power in 2010 was therefore not a surprise, indeed in some quarters of the Labour party it almost came as a relief.