Brown breaks record

Mr Brown was first elected to the Commons in 1983

On Tuesday, 15 June, 2004, Gordon Brown became the longest-serving Chancellor of the Exchequer since the Liberal, William Gladstone, in the 19th Century.

Since Mr Brown took over in 1997, the economy has grown steadily, unemployment has fallen, and inflation remains low.

But is that enough for him to be spoken of in the same terms as the great occupants of the post?

These include William Gladstone himself who put the country's finances on a sound footing by locking in income tax as a money raising measure, and David Lloyd George, another Liberal, who brought in the old-age pension and created the embryo of the modern welfare state?

Newsnight's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, reported on the record-breaking chancellor.

Reporter: Stephanie Flanders
Producer: Ben Rich