Ronald William Brown was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician. He was the younger brother of George Brown

George Brown, Baron George-Brown

George Alfred Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC was a British Labour politician, who served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and served in a number of positions in the Cabinet, most notably as Foreign Secretary, in the Labour Government of the 1960s...

, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970.

Brown was educated in South London

South London

South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...

 and at Borough Polytechnic. He served as a councillor on Camberwell Borough Council

Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell

Camberwell was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in the County of London. The borough was created in 1900 by the London Government Act 1899, covering the area of the ancient parish of Camberwell...

 and was leader of the council. He was the first leader of the London Borough of Southwark

London Borough of Southwark

The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...

 from 1964, on which he served as an alderman

Alderman

An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

.

Brown was first elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Shoreditch and Finsbury

Shoreditch and Finsbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Shoreditch and Finsbury was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Shoreditch district of the East End of London and the adjacent Finsbury area...

 in 1964. In 1966 he was challenged for his seat by the 1930s fascist Oswald Mosley

Oswald Mosley

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...

, who had been interned without trial during the Second World War. Following boundary changes in 1974 he was elected for Hackney South and Shoreditch. After 1979 he was sometimes confused with the new Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 Labour MP Ron Brown

Ron Brown (Scottish politician)

Ronald Duncan Mclaren Brown , known as Ron Brown and nicknamed Red Ron, was a Scottish Labour Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for the Edinburgh Leith constituency, from the 1979 general election to the 1992 general election...

.

In 1981, Brown was among a number of Labour MPs who defected to the Social Democratic Party (UK)

Social Democratic Party (UK)

The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

 (his brother also indicated his support and later joined). He lost his seat in 1983, polling 18% of the vote behind the Labour candidate Brian Sedgemore

Brian Sedgemore

Brian Charles John Sedgemore is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom; he was a Member of Parliament from 1974 until 1979, and from 1983 until 2005...

 (who defected to the Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 himself in 2005).

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