George Brown

George Brown   (politician)
Born	2 September 1914 Lambeth, London, England
Died	2 June 1985 (Age 70) Truro, Cornwall, England
Nationality	British
Party	Labour, Social Democratic Party (UK)
Double Bilderberger UK Labour right-wing politician. Later Social Democratic Party.  UK/Leader of the Opposition  In office 18 January 1963 - 14 February 1963 Preceded by Hugh Gaitskell Following the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell  First Secretary of State  In office 16 October 1964 - 11 August 1966 Succeeded by Michael Stewart  Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs  In office 11 August 1966 - 15 March 1968  Secretary of State for Economic Affairs  In office 16 October 1964 - 11 August 1966 Succeeded by Michael Stewart  Shadow Home Secretary  In office 12 March 1962 - 15 February 1963 Preceded by Patrick Gordon Walker  Deputy Leader of the Labour Party In office 15 July 1960 - 19 June 1970 Boss Harold Wilson Following the sudden death of Aneurin Bevan  Minister of Works In office 26 April 1951 - 26 October 1951  Member of Parliament for Belper In office 5 July 1945 - 18 June 1970

George Alfred George-Brown, Baron George-Brown, was a British Labour Party politician who was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970 and held several Cabinet roles under Prime Minister Harold Wilson, including Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State.

He attended two Bilderberg meetings, in 1957 and 1978. Always on the right of the Labour Party, he later supported the founding of the Social Democratic Party.

Career

After leaving school at the age of 15, Brown began work as a clerk, before joining the Transport and General Workers' Union. He rose quickly through the union ranks as an organiser, and shortly before the 1945 election he was chosen as the Labour Party candidate for the seat of Belper. He defeated the Conservative incumbent and went on to hold the seat until his own defeat at the 1970 election. He briefly sat in the Attlee government as Minister of Works in 1951. After Labour lost office he was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet, and came to be regarded as a leader of the trade-union-supporting faction on the right of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of Aneurin Bevan in 1960, Brown was successful in the election to replace him as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

Three years later, following the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell, Brown became Acting Leader of the Labour Party, and consequently was briefly Leader of the Opposition. He stood in the election to gain the role permanently, but was beaten by Harold Wilson; one factor in his defeat was concern from colleagues about the impact of his well-known alcoholism, an affliction that remained with him through his life. Following Labour's victory at the 1964 election, Wilson appointed Brown as First Secretary of State, making him the next-most senior member of the Cabinet, and appointed him to the new position of Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to curtail the power of HM Treasury.

Two months after Labour's landslide victory at the snap 1966 election, Wilson moved Brown to the role of Foreign Secretary, a job he had always coveted. Despite this, Brown continued to struggle with his alcoholism, and after several arguments with Wilson in 1968, the two agreed that Brown would resign. Brown lost his seat of Belper in 1970, and shortly thereafter was elevated to the House of Lords; he insisted, having always been known simply as "George Brown", that upon taking his peerage in November 1970 he would combine his first name and surname to create his title, Baron George-Brown, of Jevington in the County of Sussex.

Social Democratic Party

On 2 March 1976, George-Brown announced that he was leaving the Labour Party in protest at government legislation which strengthened the closed shop. This announcement was overshadowed when he collapsed and fell into a gutter, having to be helped out by newspaper reporters, which was presumed to be a result of his drinking. The Times the next day printed the opinion that "Lord George-Brown drunk is a better man than the Prime Minister sober."

George-Brown was invited to deliver the 1978 Marlow (Scotland) Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Britain's future: the significance of the European dimension".

George-Brown became the president of the Social Democratic Alliance in January 1981, and was a signatory to an advertisement in The Guardian on 5 February in support of the Limehouse Declaration. However, he did not announce his membership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for another four years. By that point, his reputation had so declined that Bill Rodgers, who had been Brown's Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (DEA) and the Foreign Office, described him as "an embarrassment rather than an asset to his old friends who founded the SDP." His brother Ron, who had been a Labour MP since 1964, had also joined the party.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1957 October	4 October 1957	6 October 1957	Italy Fiuggi	The 6th Bilderberg meeting, the latest ever in the year and the first one in Italy.
Bilderberg/1978	21 April 1978	23 April 1978	US New Jersey Princeton University	The 26th Bilderberg, held in the US

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