Gordon Brown up in the polls. Commissioned by th BBC

It was never any secret the Labour leader and Prime Minister had always coveted the top job and that he and Tony Blair had come to an agreement that he would stand aside for his Chancellor after a certain amount of time. In the days after he succeeded to the job he benefitted from a rise in the polls as a new face and as Blair's star was beginning to dim many welcomed a fresh start. Unfortunately this didn't last and his premiership came to end after failing to recover after the 2008 crash and the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Llibdems after failing to achieve an overall majority in the 2010 general election.