The UK's coalition challenge

Brown goodbye

Standing outside the prime minister's residence on Tuesday, alongside his wife Sarah, Brown wished "the next prime minister well as he makes the important choices for the future".
Brown wished Cameron well as he left office on Tuesday [EPA]

"Only those who have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities and its great capacity for good," he said.

Brown said he had "loved the job, not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony, which I do not love at all", but "for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous, more just - truly a greater Britain".

After his farewell remarks, he went to Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth II accepted his resignation.

He then went to Labour's headquarters, where he told staff that his deputy, Harriet Harman, would serve as interim Labour leader until the party formally chooses a new leader.