He was elected as a branch chairman within the
Transport and General Workers Union 1979–1985. In 1986, Brown was elected as a councillor to the
Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council, and was the Labour Group Leader 1995–97. Between 1988 and 1996 he also served as a councillor on the
Annandale and Eskdale District Council. He was selected to contest the seemingly safe
Conservative and Unionist seat of
Dumfries at the
1997 UK General Election. The MP of 33 years,
Hector Monro retired and the Conservative and Unionist candidate was
Struan Stevenson. The Conservative Party were completely wiped out in Scotland in 1997, and he was elected as the Labour MP for Dumfries with a majority of 9,643 votes. He made his
maiden speech in the House of Commons on Monday 7 July 1997. Russell Brown became a Member of the
Scottish Affairs Select committee in 1999, and left the committee after the
2001 general election. He was made a
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
Leader of the House of Lords,
Gareth Wyn Williams of Mostyn in 2002. When Williams died in 2003, he continued in the same position with his successor
Valerie Amos. Brown resigned from the government in 2003 in protest at the
proposed military intervention in
Iraq, stepping down from his position as parliamentary aide to
Lord Williams of Mostyn, leader of the
House of Lords. Brown subsequently "voted against saying that the case for war against Iraq has not yet been established" and was absent for the vote to declare war. In the major redistribution of
Scottish seats, his constituency of Dumfries was abolished and the new seat of Dumfries and Galloway was created. At the
2005 general election he faced the sitting Conservative MP for
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale Peter Duncan. Brown defeated Duncan, and was elected with a majority of 2,922 votes. Following the general election, he became the PPS to the
Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Darling and his successor
Jim Murphy. At the
2010 general election Russell Brown was again challenged by Peter Duncan, the Conservative MP he defeated five years previously; who is now a councillor on Dumfries and Galloway Council. Despite Labour losing the election nationally, Russell Brown's popularity locally meant he almost tripled his majority to 7,449 votes. In October 2010, Russell Brown was appointed to Labour's front bench as a Shadow Defence Minister. His brief was Shadow
Minister for International Security Strategy. He was also a member of the
Public Bill Committee for the
Defence Reform Act. Brown lost his seat at the
2015 general election, finishing in third place with 13,982 votes behind the
Scottish Conservatives' Finlay Carson with 16,926 votes and the winner:
SNP's
Richard Arkless with 23,440 votes. == Personal life==