Nick Brown

For other people named Nick Brown, see Nick Brown (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable Nick Brown MP
Brown in 2020
Opposition Chief Whip of the House of Commons Member of Shadow Cabinet
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 October 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Rosie Winterton
In office 11 May 2010 – 7 October 2010
Leader	Harriet Harman (Acting) Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Patrick McLoughlin
Succeeded by	Rosie Winterton
Chief Whip of 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 for the North East
In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Deputy Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons Treasurer of the Household
In office 28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Bob Ainsworth
Succeeded by	Tommy McAvoy
Minister of State for Work
In office 11 June 2001 – 13 June 2003
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Des Browne
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 (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Acting
In office 12 May 1994 – 21 July 1994
Leader	Margaret Beckett (Acting)
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Margaret Beckett
Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne East Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend (1997–2010)
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Mike Thomas
Majority	15,463 (35.7%)
Personal details
Born	Nicholas Hugh Brown (1950-06-13) 13 June 1950 Hawkhurst, Kent, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Manchester
Website	Official website

Nicholas Hugh Brown (born 13 June 1950) is a senior British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne East since 1983. Brown is currently the Chief Whip of the Labour Party in the House of Commons and has held the position intermittently since 1997 under five Labour Party leaders, both in government and in opposition. He previously served in several ministerial roles while his party was in government between 1997 and 2010.

Early life

Brown was born in Hawkhurst, Kent, and brought up in nearby Tunbridge Wells, attending Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys before studying at the University of Manchester. After graduating, he worked in advertising for Procter & Gamble, but in 1978 he moved to be legal adviser to the Northern Region of the GMBATU, later GMB, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1980 he was elected to Newcastle City Council, representing the Walker ward.

Political career

When Mike Thomas, the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne East, defected to the SDP, Brown was chosen as the new Labour Party candidate for the seat, easily retaining it for Labour at the 1983 general election. He joined Labour's front bench in 1985 as a spokesman on Legal Affairs; from 1988 he was a Treasury spokesman and from 1994 he shadowed Health.

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. In the 1994 Labour leadership election he acted as Brown's unofficial campaign manager, and according to Gordon Brown's biographer Paul Routledge, advised against him pulling out of the contest in Blair's favour.

In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Chief Whip and played a central role in the close Parliament in trying to defeat the Conservatives. After Labour's election victory in 1997, he was appointed Chief Whip, but stayed there only for a year, to then be moved to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 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 Brown.

His tenure at MAFF saw several animal health crises ending with the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak. Brown's handling of the outbreak, which some in the media and politics used to attack the government, was criticised, though throughout he maintained the support of the farming and food industries and the veterinary profession. 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 out to be the Minister of Work, with non-voting Cabinet rank, at the Department for Work and Pensions after the general election of 2001. In June 2003, he was dropped from the Government altogether, receiving news of his sacking by Tony Blair during the course of a celebration party held to mark his 20 years as an MP.

In 2004, he was one of the organisers of a rebellion over the government's proposals for student finance, but hours before the vote announced that he had received concessions from the Government and would now support it. It was suspected that the Chancellor had ordered him to back down, but the affair cost him some credibility.

Brown was closely allied to Gordon Brown. On 29 June 2007, Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, appointed Nick Brown as the new Deputy Chief Whip and Minister for the North East of England.

Following a government reshuffle, he was returned 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.

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.

On 29 January 2010, 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 outing. 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."

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".

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 the North East of England at the time.

On 6 October 2016, Brown was re-appointed Labour Chief Whip, under Jeremy Corbyn, and he went on to play an important role in the Parliamentary debates and votes over Brexit during 2018 and 2019. He oversaw the largest ever defeat inflicted upon a government.

Brown was reappointed by Keir Starmer after the latter's victory in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election. This reappointment means that Brown is the only person to have held the job three times, as well as under six different leaders (Blair, Brown, Harman, briefly Miliband, Corbyn and Starmer) and in four different decades.

Brown is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

Personal life and interests

Brown is a holder of the freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne award. He is a supporter of Humanists UK and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society. He is known to have a love for classical music, which developed during his university years. He is governor of Walker Riverside Academy, a patron of Leeds Youth Opera and trustee of the Biscuit Factory Foundation (a Newcastle based art gallery). Brown is the current chair of the all-party parliamentary group for motorcycle speedway racing.

External links

• Nick Brown MP official constituency website
• Profile at the Labour Party
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou