Key dates in Brown's leadership

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, battling to keep his job in elections next month, took power from Tony Blair in 2007. Here is a chronology of his three years in office:

- June 27, 2007: Brown takes over from Blair as Labour prime minister. Blair stood down with his authority weakened after the 2003 Iraq war, and after intense pressure from Brown supporters.

- June 29, 2007: Two attempted car bombings are foiled in central London. The next day, a flaming 4x4 is driven into the terminal building at Glasgow airport.

Brown draws praise for his decisive response to this, plus serious flooding in July and an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in August. Labour pulls well ahead of the main opposition Conservatives in opinion polls.

- October 6, 2007: After weeks of speculation not countered by government sources, Brown rules out calling a snap general election amid polls showing rising support for the Conservatives, who nickname him "Bottler (coward) Brown".

- February 17, 2008: Brown's government says the Northern Rock bank will be nationalised. Northern Rock is a key indicator of how the global economic crisis which comes to define Brown's premiership will hit Britain.

- May 2008: Labour records its worst local election results in 40 years, coming third in polls on May 1, when London Mayor Ken Livingstone of Labour is also ousted by Conservative Boris Johnson.

In the coming weeks, the party also loses two safe House of Commons seats in by-elections.

- July 29, 2008: Foreign Secretary David Miliband writes an article seen as the prelude to a possible leadership challenge, but this never materialises.

Questions about Brown's leadership are soon temporarily put on hold as the economic crisis kicks in.

- September 17, 2008: Two days after Lehman Brothers collapses, Lloyds TSB bank says it will take over Britain's biggest mortgage lender HBOS in an emergency deal which Brown helps broker. HBOS later announces a 2008 pre-tax loss of just under 11 billion pounds.

- October 8, 2008: Government announces a 500 billion pound package to bail out banks hit by the global financial crisis.

- October 13, 2008: As part of this, Brown's government announces plans to part-nationalise Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS by pumping 37 billion pounds into them.

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes that Brown and Darling have defined the worldwide economic rescue plan and wonders if Brown has "saved the world financial system".

- December 17, 2008: Brown says most British troops in Iraq will leave by mid-2009.

- January 23, 2009: Official figures that show Britain has entered recession after two successive quarters of negative growth.

- April 2, 2009: World leaders at the G20 summit in London hosted by Brown reach a deal on emergency measures to tackle the world financial crisis.

- May 8, 2009: The Daily Telegraph newspaper publishes first of its revelations which will show how MPs claimed lavish expenses from the public purse for everything from moat cleaning to a duck island.

Brown is slow to respond to public anger at the row and is outflanked by Cameron.

- June 4, 2009: European elections take place alongside local polls. Labour records disastrous results. Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell resigns, calling for Brown to do the same.

Several other ministers also subsequently quit amid a Cabinet reshuffle and talk of a challenge to Brown's leadership but he does not face one.

- January 6, 2010: Two ex ministers write to Labour lawmakers saying the party is "deeply divided" and calling for a secret ballot on Brown's leadership. But the challenge goes no further.

- January 26, 2010: Official data says Britain has emerged from recession. Labour's poll ratings start to pick up, fuelling talk of a possible hung parliament.

- February 20, 2010: Brown strongly denies allegations in a new book that he bullied members of staff at Downing Street.

-- April 6: widely-anticipated announcement that election to be held on May 6.