Gordon Brown returned home to Fife in Scotland with his family on Tuesday night after resigning both as the PM and leader of the Labour party.
Mr Brown, 59, had taken over as the Prime Minister on June 27, 2007 when his predecessor Tony Blair resigned from office. Before taking over as the Premier, Mr Brown was the chancellor of exchequer under Mr Blair for a decade. In his speech at 10 Downing Street before tendering his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II, Mr Brown cracked with emotion when he mentioned his wife Sarah and his sons, six-year-old John and three-year-old Frazier.
“Above all I want to thank Sarah for her unwavering support as well as her love and for her own service to our country. I thank my sons John and Frazier for the love and joy they bring to our lives and as I leave the second most-important job I could ever hold, I cherish, even more, the first as a husband and father,” he said with moist eyes. Mr Brown, who was constantly dogged by controversies during his 34-month premiership, acknowledged his shortcomings too. “I have been privileged to learn much about the very best in human nature, and a fair amount, too, about its frailties, including my own,” he said.
Mr Brown, in his three years in power, battled infighting in the Labour, recession, global financial crisis, terror attacks, return of foot and mouth disease, unprecedented floods, swine flu among other crises, and bottling decision on election in October 2007, leading to him being one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers in Britain.
After meeting the Queen, he went to Labour Party he-adquarters on Victoria Street in London and bid farewell to party members. Again, he took responsibility for failing to form a “progressive alliance” and for the party’s election result. “I wish more than I can possibly say that I could have mobilised that majority to carry the election — but I could not. And so now I have to accept — and indeed assert — personal responsibility. The fault is mine, and I will carry it alone,” Mr Brown admitted.