Scottish politician Gordon Brown was BOTD in 1951. Born in Giffnock, the son of a vicar, he was raised in Kirkcaldy. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, working as an academic and a political journalist for Scottish television. He was elected in 1993 as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East. The following year, Tony Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party, after reportedly striking a deal with Brown not to contest the leadership in exchange for promotion should Labour win the next election. In 1997, the Blair-led Labour Party won the national election in a landslide, and Brown was appointed Chancellor (minister of finance), a role he held for over 10 years. As Chancellor, he gave the Bank of England control over monetary policy and setting interest rates, and transferred responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority, leading to a mass increase in consumer credit debt and significant banking malpractice (including widespread mis-selling of insurance to borrowers). He also increased taxes to fund government spending on health and education, and sold 60% of the UK’s gold reserves. Following Blair’s resignation in 2007, Brown became Prime Minister. His tenure was fraught with conflict, indecision and leadership challenges, though he successfully introduced civil partnerships for same-sex couples, the extension of pension rights to same-sex partners and a formal apology for the conviction of gay mathematician Alan Turing. He lost the 2010 election to the Conservatives, and remained a backbench MP until 2015. A long-term bachelor, he surprised many by marrying Sarah Macaulay at the age of 49, with whom he had two sons, and a daughter who died in infancy. He denied repeated speculation about his sexuality, later stating in his 2017 memoir that Blair’s aides had attempted to smear him as gay. He has been played by David Morrissey and Peter Mullan in TV dramas about the Blair-Brown relationship.