Gordon Brown stepping down from British parliament after 30 years
After leading No camp in Scottish referendum, 63-year-old politician says he will not run for re-election to parliament in May's election
Britain's former prime minister Gordon Brown, who waited patiently for the top job only to be voted out after three years, said he was stepping down from parliament after three decades.
The 63-year-old, who was ousted in 2010, had briefly returned to the political spotlight this year to help snatch victory for the "No" camp in Scotland's historic independence referendum.
But he confirmed on Monday he would not be standing again in next May's general election as a lawmaker for the centre-left Labour party, bringing the curtain down on his stormy Westminster career.
"I'm in no doubt it's the right thing to do," he said in an address in his constituency in Kirkcaldy in Scotland, speaking in the same church where his father was a minister.
Brown said he would not be returning to the Westminster parliament in any capacity, but would work as the United Nations special envoy for global education from Fife in Scotland, a position he has held since 2012.
However, he would do everything possible in the run-up to the May 2015 general election to ensure "the election of Ed Miliband as prime minister under a Labour government".