Nick Brown | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Geoff Hoon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Patrick McLoughlin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Alastair Goodlad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ann Taylor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 27 July 1998 – 11 June 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jack Cunningham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Margaret Beckett | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forNewcastle upon Tyne East Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend (1997–2010) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 9 June 1983 – 30 May 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Mike Thomas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Mary Glindon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chair of theFinance Committee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 26 May 2021 – 7 March 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lilian Greenwood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Sharon Hodgson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 21 July 2015 – 17 October 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | John Thurso | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Rosie Winterton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Nicholas Hugh Brown (1950-06-13)13 June 1950 (age 75) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour (until 2023) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Manchester (BA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nicholas Hugh Brown (born 13 June 1950), known asNick Brown, is a British former politician andtrade unionist who served asMember of Parliament (MP) forNewcastle upon Tyne East between1983 and2024. He represented theLabour Party until his resignation in 2023. Brown is the longest-servingChief Whip of the Labour Party, discontinuously holding the position several times between 1997 and 2021 underBlair,Brown,Miliband,Corbyn andStarmer.
Brown attendedCabinet as Government Chief Whip from 1997 until 1998 and again from 2008 until 2010, and asAgriculture Minister from 1998 to 2001. Brown also held the position ofRegional Minister for theNorth East between 2007 and 2010.
Nicholas Hugh Brown was born inHawkhurst,Kent,[1] and brought up inTunbridge Wells. He was educated atTunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys and theUniversity of Manchester.[2] After graduating from university, Brown worked in the advertising department ofProcter & Gamble. He then in 1978 became a legal adviser to the Northern Region of the GMBATU, laterGMB, based inNewcastle upon Tyne.[3]
In 1980, Brown was elected toNewcastle City Council as a Labour councillor, representing theWalkerward.
Brown was chosen as the new Labour Party candidate for the parliamentary seat afterMike Thomas, the LabourMember of Parliament (MP) forNewcastle upon Tyne East, defected to theSDP. Brown easily retained the seat for Labour at the 1983 general election. Originally elected to the Commons in the same year asGordon Brown andTony 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 shadowsolicitor general. In 1988, he was moved to the position of Treasury spokesperson before briefly becoming shadow spokesperson for health between 1994 and 1995.
In the1994 Labour leadership election, he supported Gordon Brown and acted as his unofficialcampaign manager and, according to biographerPaul Routledge, advised against his withdrawing from the contest in Blair's favour. He backedMargaret Beckett for leadership.
In 1995, Brown was appointed as DeputyChief Whip in theHouse of Commons and played a central role in Parliament in trying to defeat the Conservative government's parliamentary agenda.
Following Labour'selection victory in 1997, he was appointed as GovernmentChief Whip in the House of Commons, but stayed there only for just over a year, to then be moved to theMinistry 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 theMinister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food saw several animal health crises, ending with the2001 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 avaccination 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 toMinister 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 theRegional Minister for theNorth 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 toThe Daily Telegraph in this period Brown himself claimed a total of £87,708 for his constituency home.[4]
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.[5]
On 29 September 2010, newly elected Labour Party leaderEd Miliband asked Brown to stand down as Chief Whip due to the need for a "break from the past".[6]
On 29 January 2011, during theNews of the World phone hacking affair, Brown said that his landline may have been bugged in 1998, around the time of his being outed.[7] 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."[7]
In 2014, Brown publicly opposed his party's proposal to scrap the position ofPolice and Crime Commissioner (PCC), citing the effectiveness of the three PCCs inNorth East England at the time.[8]
Ahead of the2016 EU membership referendum, Brown stated he supported remaining in theEuropean Union.[9][10]
On 6 October 2016, Brown was reappointed as Labour Chief Whip byJeremy Corbyn, and thus became Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons.[11]
Brown was again reappointed as Labour Chief Whip by SirKeir Starmer after the latter's victory in the2020 Labour Party leadership election.[12] 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'sShadow Cabinetreshuffle in May 2021. On 26 May 2021, Brown returned as chair of theFinance Committee.[13]
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.[14][15] 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.[14]
Brown is a holder of the freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne award,[1] a supporter ofHumanists UK, a member ofGMB,[16] and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.[17] He is known to have a love forclassical music,[18] which developed during his time atManchester University. Brown was a member of theLabour Friends of Israel group.[19]
In 1998, Browncame out asgay after a former lover contacted theNews of the World offering to sell his story. In a speech, he announced: "The sun is out – and so am I."[20]
From 2012 until 2022, he was a Non-Executive Director of the Mariinsky Theatre Trust (theAnglo-Russian friendship organisation that supports the work of theMariinsky Theatre in the UK). He is a governor ofWalker Riverside Academy, a patron ofLeeds Youth Opera and a trustee of the Biscuit Factory art exhibition inShieldfield, Newcastle.[21] He formerly chaired the all-party parliamentary group formotorcycle speedway racing.[22]
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