British Chancellor Brown leaves for honeymoon

News of Gordon Brown's wedding was a closely guarded secret

NORTH QUEENSFERRY, Scotland (Reuters) -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and his new wife Sarah Macaulay were on honeymoon Friday after tying the knot at a private ceremony in Scotland.

Appearing before cameras after the wedding at his home the finance minister smiled and hugged his new wife.

With a media pack gathered in the garden of Brown's Edwardian red-brick house shouting "Give her a kiss sir, go on!" the minister duly obliged three times for the cameras.

"We're overjoyed. It has been a wonderful day and a lovely ceremony -- not just for us, but for our families as well. It has been a lovely family occasion," the Browns said in a written statement issued after their wedding.

Macaulay, a public relations executive, wore flowers in her hair and an oyster-colored knee-length dress with a matching jacket.

Brown wore a dark blue lounge suit, white shirt and maroon tie. A spokesman for Brown said the chancellor would not wear a wedding ring, but his wife would.

The ceremony included two readings from the Bible, but there were no hymns, he said.

The couple hosted a lunch for the wedding guests -- which did not include UK Prime Minister Tony Blair -- before setting off later Thursday on honeymoon, widely reported to be planned for Cape Cod on the north-east coast of the U.S..

Asked why Blair was not invited, Brown's spokesman said: "It was a small private family ceremony. There are going to be two parties in September for friends and colleagues. There were no ministerial colleagues at the ceremony."

The pair met in 1994 when her firm was involved in arranging Labor Party events. They began dating two years later.

Macaulay, remembered by schoolfriends as clever, aloof and driven by ambition, was included in a carefully staged photo opportunity shortly after Brown became chancellor in May 1997.

Brown only announced his plans to marry late Wednesday. He had been expected to marry in a local church, but chose instead to avoid the assembled media and tie the knot at home.

Despite widespread speculation about their relationship, there had been no suggestion of an imminent wedding and some rumors had circulated suggesting the relationship had cooled.

Brown, 49, the son of a Church of Scotland minister, is known as a self-disciplined workaholic and an intellectual heavyweight of the ruling Labor Party.

His tight grip on public spending has earned him a reputation as the "Iron Chancellor" and led many commentators to quip that his only true sweetheart is "prudence."

Reuters contributed to this report.

UK Treasury

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