The Right Honourable
The Lord Browne of Ladyton
PC
Official portrait, 2022
Secretary of State for Scotland
In office
28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byDouglas Alexander
Succeeded byJim Murphy
Secretary of State for Defence
In office
5 May 2006 – 3 October 2008
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Gordon Brown
Preceded byJohn Reid
Succeeded byJohn Hutton
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office
6 May 2005 – 5 May 2006
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byPaul Boateng
Succeeded byStephen Timms
Junior ministerial offices
Minister of State for Immigration, Citizenship and Counterterrorism
In office
1 April 2004 – 6 May 2005
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byBeverley Hughes
Succeeded byTony McNulty
Minister of State for Work
In office
13 June 2003 – 1 April 2004
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byNick Brown
Succeeded byJane Kennedy
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office
11 June 2001 – 13 June 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byGeorge Howarth
Succeeded byJohn Spellar
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords
Life peerage
22 July 2010
Member of Parliament
for Kilmarnock and Loudoun
In office
1 May 1997 – 12 April 2010
Preceded byWilliam McKelvey
Succeeded byCathy Jamieson
Personal details
Born (1952-03-22) 22 March 1952
Stevenston, Scotland, United Kingdom
Political partyScottish Labour
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow

Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton, PC (born 22 March 1952) is a Scottish politician who served in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as Secretary of State for Defence 2006 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 2007 to 2008. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 1997 to 2010.

Early life and education

Browne was born in Boglemart, Stevenston, North Ayrshire, lived in Stevenston for the early part of his life, and was educated at the Catholic St Michael's Academy in Kilwinning and later at the University of Glasgow, where he received a degree in law.

He started his legal career in 1974 as an apprentice solicitor with the firm James Campbell & Co. On qualifying in 1976 he became an assistant solicitor with Ross, Harper and Murphy, and was promoted to partner in 1980. He became a partner in McCluskey Browne in 1985, and was a council member of the Law Society of Scotland from 1988 to 1992. He was admitted as an advocate in 1993, practising at the Scottish bar until 1997. He worked mainly in child law.

Parliamentary career

Browne contested the parliamentary seat of Argyll and Bute at the 1992 general election, and finished in fourth place behind the sitting Liberal Democrat MP Ray Michie. He was elected to the Faculty of Advocates in 1993. Browne was selected to contest the safe Labour seat of Kilmarnock and Loudoun following the retirement of the sitting MP William McKelvey. Browne won the seat at the 1997 general election with a majority of 7,256. He made his maiden speech on 20 June 1997.

Browne joined the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee on his election, and became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Scotland Donald Dewar in 1998. After Dewar left the Cabinet in 1999, to seek election as the First Minister of Scotland, Browne remained in post as PPS to the new Secretary of State John Reid. In 2000 he became the PPS to the Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office.

On 27 November 2009, Browne announced his intention not to seek election in the 2010 general election.[1]

Government minister

Browne meeting Robert Gates in Edinburgh during December 2007

After the 2001 general election Browne entered Tony Blair's government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office. He was promoted to Minister of State for Work in 2003, before moving to the Home Office in 2004 as the minister with responsibility for immigration. He joined the Cabinet following the 2005 general election as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and became a member of the Privy Council.

Browne was appointed Secretary of State for Defence on 5 May 2006. An advocate of the UK Trident programme, in 2007 he successfully persuaded Parliament to vote to replace Trident. He came under criticism, however, after allowing the Royal Navy personnel captured by Iran in spring 2007 to sell and publish their stories.[2] Under Blair's premiership, Browne was considered a supporter of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.[2][3] He received the additional responsibilities of Secretary of State for Scotland in June 2007 after Brown became Prime Minister.

In a free parliamentary vote on 20 May 2008, Browne voted for cutting the upper limit for abortions from 24 to 12 weeks, along with two other Catholic cabinet ministers, Ruth Kelly and Paul Murphy.[4] He returned to the backbenches in October 2008 following a cabinet reshuffle.

Browne gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry on 25 January 2010.[5]

He was created a life peer on 22 July 2010, taking the title Baron Browne of Ladyton, of Ladyton in Ayrshire and Arran.[6]

He is a Fellow Commoner of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.[7]

Activities after leaving government

Browne is vice chairman of the Washington, DC-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, who serves as co-chair and CEO, and CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner. NTI's mission is to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Browne is convener of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation.[8] and he is also convenor of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.[9][10]

He is a signatory of Global Zero, a non-profit international initiative for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.[11][12]

Controversy over appointment as envoy to Sri Lanka

In February 2009, Browne was appointed by PM Brown as the government's special envoy to Sri Lanka. However, the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, fighting the LTTE rebel group, rejected Browne's appointment, stating that the British government made the appointment unilaterally, without consultation with the Sri Lankan government.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Des Browne to quit House of Commons after next election". BBC News. 27 November 2009. Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Profile: Des Browne". BBC News. 15 April 2007. Archived from the original on 27 March 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  3. ↑ Hall, Sarah. "Brown's man Browne gets poisoned chalice". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "MPs back 24-week abortion limit". BBC News. 20 May 2008. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  5. ↑ "Ex-defence secretary speaks of strain of Iraq losses". BBC News. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  6. ↑ "No. 59500". The London Gazette. 27 July 2010. p. 14307.
  7. ↑ Lord Des Browne Fellow Commoner
  8. ↑ "Members: Lord Desmond Browne of Ladyton". European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  9. ↑ Borger, Julian (8 September 2009). "Nuclear-free world ultimate aim of new cross-party pressure group". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  10. ↑ Des Browne (November 2010). Current NATO Nuclear Policy (Report). Arms Control Association et al. Archived from the original on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  11. ↑ "Group Offers Plan to Eliminate Nukes by 2030" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 June 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2011.
  12. ↑ Corera, Gordon (10 December 2008). "Group seeks nuclear weapons ban". BBC News. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  13. ↑ "Sri Lanka rejects UK's new envoy". BBC News. 13 February 2009. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
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