Sky Sources: Ex-PM Gordon Brown To Quit As MP

Gordon Brown is poised to announce that he is to quit as an MP at the next election after 32 years in the Commons, Sky sources have revealed.

One close colleague predicted he may write to Labour Party members in his Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency as early as the next few days and make a formal announcement before Christmas.

"Gordon always holds a function for his party members at Christmas and if I were a betting man, I would bet that he will make an announcement then," the source told Sky News.

Mr Brown is holding a Christmas party for local councillors and party officials in Kirkcaldy on Monday, 1 December, and he is tipped to reveal the news then.

Another senior source told Sky News: "I'm reliably informed he will make an announcement in the coming weeks."

The former prime minister's decision to step down as an MP has been widely expected, though the timing of his announcement has been influenced by his starring role in the recent Scottish referendum campaign.

"He wants to go out on a high after effectively salvaging the campaign to keep the UK together in September," a close ally told the Sunday Mirror.

"He will focus on his charity work."

Since losing the 2010 election to David Cameron, Mr Brown, now 63, has concentrated on charity work and his role as UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

He has been criticised by political opponents for his rare appearances in the Commons, but made a dramatic comeback in the Scottish referendum battle when the No campaign appeared to be heading for defeat.

His barnstorming speech in Glasgow’s Maryhill on the eve of the referendum was widely acknowledged as a personal triumph and a decisive turning point in the eventual outcome of the referendum.

Mr Brown’s seat, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, is one of Labour’s safest in the UK, with a thumping majority - appropriately for the man dubbed the "great clunking fist" by Tony Blair - of more than 23,000.

Colleagues have told Sky News the former PM would like to see an all-women shortlist for the selection and are tipping his former speechwriter, Kirsty McNeill, to succeed him.

His announcement comes shortly after Alistair Darling, who succeeded Mr Brown as chancellor of the exchequer and then ran the Better Together campaign in Scotland, announced he was quitting as an MP at the next election.

And there is now speculation that following Labour’s slump and the Scottish National Party’s surge in opinion polls since the referendum, more of Labour’s older Scottish MPs will decide to call it a day rather than risk the humiliation of defeat by the SNP.