Arriving at Westminster in 1983, Gordon Brown was allocated a shared office with another newly-elected Labour MP, Tony Blair. Although further to the left than Blair, they were both dismayed at the Labour Party's disarray. In the corridors of power at Westminster, the Conservatives - with their enlarged 144 majority - were rampant and bursting with confidence. In contrast to the Tory ideas that "there was no such thing as society" and that it was up to each individual to get on a bike and find a job, Brown in his maiden speech focussed on the blight of unemployment in his constituency. He remained convinced that only socialism and state intervention could help redress the inequalities and injustices in the country.

Gordon Brown's lifestyle in London was centred on his work. From a flat in the Barbican that he shared with his brother he would make the short daily journey to Parliament, working hard in his office: scouring newspapers, researching facts and figures, reading, reviewing, analysing.

Then in March 1984 came the sad drama of the Miners' Strike. What started as an offensive by the miners' leader, Arthur Scargill - with local strikes and flying pickets, escalating to confrontation with the police in a dramatic social and political conflict - ended as the pitiful surrender of community after community. The Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher, had stockpiled supplies and insisted on the closure of 'uneconomical' pits. Gordon Brown openly supported the miners, right to the collapse of the strike a year later in March 1985.

During this period the Labour leader Neil Kinnock was struggling to defeat militants in his own party on the far left, but Brown chose to keep a fairly low profile in this affair, working instead on his biography of James Maxton. He also wrote a weekly column for the Daily Record.

In 1985 and 1986, Labour's hopes rose as a number of factors put Thatcher's government under pressure, and Gordon Brown accepted a formal role in Labour's shadow government. But there was still a long way to go - above all a journey to travel in coming to terms with new economic realities. Early signals of the need to review and modernise Labour policies came from people like Peter Mandelson - Labour's new head of PR.

However, opinion polls showed a swing back to the Conservatives in 1987, and a general Election was called in May. Labour's defeat centred on its portrayal as a party of high taxation, which followed logically from the spending pledges made by John Smith. The electorate did not believe that Labour had the financial prudence to be entrusted with the economy. The Conservatives were returned to power again, with a scarcely diminished majority of 101.

In the aftermath of another election defeat, Gordon Brown was elected to the shadow cabinet, with the support and endorsement of John Smith. Smith was appointed as shadow chancellor, and Gordon Brown was made shadow chief secretary to the Treasury. Coming 11th out of 40 in the shadow cabinet elections, and the youngest MP in Neil Kinnock's 'cabinet', he was starting to be seriously discussed as a possible future leader. Through subtlety or good fortune he had managed to navigate and manoeuvre his way through the rival wings of the party, keeping close to party roots, union loyalties and traditional socialist views; yet at the same time demonstrating the intellect, gravity and astuteness to be taken seriously by party leaders whose support and respect he sought for future preferment.

It was at this point, after the defeat of 1987, that Gordon Brown started to veer away from socialism. Neil Kinnock had brought in Bryan Gould to carry out a review (or autopsy) of the Labour Party, but Gould saw traditional socialism as Labour's continuing platform. Brown no longer agreed with the old Labour solutions. He was starting to recognise that Labour needed to develop its own relationship with the City and capitalism. Meanwhile the Stock Market crash of 19th October 1987 - 'Black Monday' as it was called - seemed to add weight to Gould's review and own bid for power. In contrast, Blair and Brown both saw the review as a recipe for further electoral defeats. Peter Mandelson also came on board, abandoning Gould, and supporting Brown and Blair. An axis was forming.

At this stage - at the end of 1987 - it seems as if Peter Mandelson saw Gordon Brown (rather than Tony Blair) as the individual most capable of leading Labour to success in the future. Brown appeared to combine intellectualism with populism, and seemed capable of handling people with considerable confidence. He was becoming a respectable and acceptable face of Labour politics, intelligent enough perhaps to be taken seriously… capable perhaps of electoral credibility in the future.

Mandelson encouraged Gordon Brown to meet Michael Wills, who worked as a television producer for the programme 'Weekend World'; and Wills in turn introduced Brown to a field of experts with whom he discussed the realities of the economy. Slowly, step by step, Brown was coming to recognise that some Conservative policies had validity and meaning, more in touch with economic practicalities than the old ideologies of Labour's socialism. Wealth creation was needed to finance social causes and to improve the standard of living of all: Brown's quest now was to become a search for a middle way - embracing the need for capitalism and wealth creation, but as a means of channeling wealth into social needs and a fairer society. In the process, this middle way might woo back the middle classes and restore to Labour electoral success that had eluded it for so long.

In the summer of 1988, he spent three weeks in the USA, reading at Harvard, meeting academics, and exploring America's economic growth. Brown the intellectual was now finding the stimulus of this new way of thinking, and developing his own concept of a society that might accommodate the rich, while remaining true to his christian and socialist roots. And yet publicly in the political arena he still berated his Conservative opponents for their support of the rich. In political terms, if Brown was to break out from the traditional and vote-losing Labour mantras, he still needed the political support of those who remained true to his own socialist roots. He needed to say the right things publicly. He could not afford to alienate his own powerbase, or he could easily lose the chance to gain power to put changes and new ideas into effect. However, this 'game' of saying just what needed to be said - this game of key words and sound bites - was one of Brown's greatest skills. For years he had charted his rise towards power and influence, by knowing what to say and what to leave unsaid. Labour was not yet ready for 'New Labour' - and yet that was the journey he was now embarked upon (though the ideas were still evolving).

Then in the autumn of 1988, the shadow chancellor John Smith suffered a heart attack, affording Gordon Brown the opportunity (during Smith's recovery) to take the front seat in economic debate against the Tories in the House of Commons. This coincided with growing vulnerability for the Conservative Chancellor, Nigel Lawson. Interest rates were on the rise, unemployment was high, and Brown sparkled in his sharp derision of the beleaguered Chancellor. To fellow Labour MPs, Gordon Brown's tirades and intelligent speeches were a source of encouragement and helped present Brown as indeed the rising star of the Labour Party. This was confirmed on 6th November when he came top in the party vote for the shadow cabinet. Also interesting was the emergence of Tony Blair on the list for the first time, though lower down the poll.

The autumn of 1988 saw Gordon Brown clearly emerge as a potential leader, though others like Smith still stood further up the queue for the time being.

Brown's response was hard work, week in, week out. His life was a round of detailed research, press releases, leaks of government policy details, statistics, publicity. As John Smith recovered, Gordon Brown would join him on ascents of munros in the Scottish Highlands - the Highlands, a backdrop and reminder of earlier clearances and privatisations… an earlier dismantling of communities in the face of economic reality.

1989 saw Margaret Thatcher under increasing pressure. Her position was weakened externally by public opposition to the hated Poll Tax, and internally by the breakdown of relations with Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe over her opposition to the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

These divisions in the Conservative Party provided Brown with openings for humour, derision and penetrating attacks. These public forays sustained his popularity in Labour ranks and in the shadow elections of 1989 he was again top in the vote, and appointed shadow spokesperson for Trade and Industry.

With success and recognition came rivalries and jealousy. His relationship with Robin Cook (for whom he had once campaigned) was notoriously tense. Others on the left of the party were also hostile. Some people underestimated a man who could be almost shambolic because of his intellectual preoccupations… arriving late for meetings… seemingly provincial and lacking in 'finish'… epitomised by his house 'Dramcarling' in Fife, which was casually furnished and scarcely decorated… an untidy house, an academic's paper-strewn house… not the neat and well-presented home of a future statesman.

Then came a policy judgment that would later put Gordon Brown's credibility to the test. He and John Smith urged Neil Kinnock to abandon Labour's idea of taking the country out of the European Union, and instead to back Britain's membership of the ERM. This turned out to be a historic misjudgement, because in the end the European bankers could not rein in or control the speculators of the money markets. 'We can fight speculators if we join the ERM,' he said - but he was to be proved wrong.

During 1990, Gordon Brown continued to promote his analysis that the Conservatives had abandoned the poor in their support for the rich getting richer. He lambasted the market-place of self-seekers, each out for themselves, and called instead for community… for 'a community of opportunity'. He was particularly scathing about Conservative ministers who went from the cabinet to lucrative directorships of privatised companies. These easy targets served a useful purpose for Brown in aligning himself with his traditional supporters, even at a time when his own political outlook was - in fact - moving on from some of their socialist assumptions.

On 28th November 1990 Margaret Thatcher was forced to resign as Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader, and was replaced by John Major. But within the Labour Party there was also a growing undercurrent looking for change. To some, Labour remained unelectable as long as Neil Kinnock remained leader. In 1991, a low-key 'New Labour' approach was starting to be promoted by people like Brown, Blair and Mandelson - latching onto fears that a fourth Conservative election victory could happen if things stayed the same. However, it is highly likely that Peter Mandelson had by now decided that Tony Blair - not Gordon Brown - would be the best person to lead a renewed party.

But in the interim period, it was John Smith who still mustered most support as a possible replacement for Kinnock. Smith remained true to a state-controlled socialist vision, and persuaded Kinnock that Labour should go public on plans for higher taxation to fund a fairer society. Brown felt that such a public undertaking was an electoral mistake that would alienate the middle-classes.

In the general Election of April 1992, John Smith was convinced that these taxation pledges were vote-winners but Brown and many others were right - Labour's election hopes foundered as the Conservatives portrayed Labour as the party of high taxation and financial incompetence. Kinnock's personal image was the other great vote-loser and, after a catastrophic fourth Labour defeat, he resigned.

Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to stand for the leadership against John Smith. But Brown seemed to fear being portrayed as a divisive element, attacking the candidate the Trade Unions seemed to favour, and he lacked the conviction to go onto the offensive. Blair was impatient and felt that Brown lacked political courage at a critical moment. Brown, for his part, projected his acquiescence as party loyalty.

Shortly after John Smith took over as leader, the Press began running stories that suggested Blair as a fresher, more distanced, alternative to the old-fashioned Smith. It was almost as if Gordon Brown's moment and opportunity had passed. Now, faced with a Labour leader who seemed tied to the past, Blair seemed to present a more distinctive change, more clearly separate from Trade Unions, Scottish socialism… more urbane, less part of the past which dogged Labour's election chances. In 1992, a shift was happening, and it was a shift in Blair's direction as someone the English public could identify with, more easily perhaps than Gordon Brown. First Brown had emerged as a potential future leader: now Blair was emerging as well, and threatened to overtake him.