Prime Minister

Brown ceased to be Chancellor and, upon the approval of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 27 June 2007. Like all modern Prime Ministers, Brown concurrently serves as the First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service, and is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and, hence, also a Privy Counsellor. He is also Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. He is the sixth post-war prime minister, of a total of 12, to assume the role without having won a general election.


Policies
Brown has proposed moving some traditional prime ministerial powers conferred by royal prerogative to the realm of Parliament, such as the power to declare war and approve appointments to senior positions. Brown wants Parliament to gain the right to ratify treaties and have more oversight into the intelligence services. He has also proposed moving some powers from Parliament to citizens, including the right to form "citizens' juries", easily petition Parliament for new laws, and rally outside Westminster. He has asserted that the attorney general should not have the right to decide whether to prosecute in individual cases, such as in the loans for peerages scandal.

During his Labour leadership campaign, Brown proposed some policy initiatives, suggesting that a Brown-led government would introduce the following:

End to corruption: Following the cash for honours scandal, Brown emphasised cracking down on corruption. Brown has announced a new ministerial code which sets out clear standards of behaviour for ministers.
Constitutional reform: Brown has not stated whether he proposes a U.S.-style written constitution — something the UK has never had — or a looser bill of rights. He said in a speech when announcing his bid that he wants a “better constitution” that is “clear about the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen in Britain today”. He plans to set up an all-party convention to look at new powers for Parliament. This convention may also look at rebalancing powers between Whitehall and local government. Brown has said he will give Parliament the final say on whether British troops are sent into action in future.
Housing: House planning restrictions are likely to be relaxed. Brown said he wants to release more land and ease access to ownership with shared equity schemes. He backed a proposal to build new eco-towns, each housing between 10,000 and 20,000 homeowners — up to 100,000 new homes in total.
Health: Brown intends to have doctors' surgeries open at the weekends, and GPs on call in the evenings. Doctors were given the right of opting out of out-of-hours care two years ago, under a controversial pay deal, signed by then-Health Secretary John Reid, which awarded them a 22% pay rise in 2006. Brown stated that the NHS was his "top priority", yet he had just cut the capital budget of the English NHS from £6.2bn to £4.2bn.
The Brown government was involved in controversy in April 2008 over the decision to scrap the 10p Income Tax Band and he was forced into making concessions. In the local elections on 1 May 2008, Labour suffered their worst results in 40 years finishing in third place with a projected 24% share of the national vote.Subsequently the party has seen the loss of by-elections in Nantwich and Crewe and Henley as well as slumps in the polls. A by election in Glasgow East triggered by the resignation of David Marshall saw the Labour party struggle to appoint a candidate, eventually settling for a 5th choice, a sitting MSP in the Scottish Parliament Margaret Curran. The SNP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have all derided the party for their disorganised nature with Alex Salmond commenting "This is their 'lost weekend' - they don't have a leader in Scotland, they don't have a candidate in Glasgow East, and they have a prime minister who refuses to come to the constituency". A former Labour spin doctor has commented that the loss of a safe seat in Glasgow (one of the safest Labour seats in the country) would indicate to Gordon Brown that any MP with a majority of less than 13,500 would be unsafe and his position as Prime Minister would be untenable.[82] The unthinkable result became a reality when the seat experienced a massive swing of 22.54% in one of Labours safest heartland areas, and the constituency was lost to the Scottish National Party's John Mason who took 11,277 votes with Labour just 365 behind.