Brown was re-elected to the Scottish Parliament in the 2011 election, this time representing the newly drawn constituency of Clackmannanshire and Dunblane.

He was re-elected as an MSP in 2016 and was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, a position he held from 2016 to 2018.

In the 2018, Brown was elected Deputy Leader of the SNP, succeeding Angus Robertson, and left government to focus on his new position.

Keith James Brown was born on 20 December 1961 in Edinburgh, where he attended Tynecastle High School.

[3] He then went to work in local government administration in Stirling and was also an active trade union representative with UNISON.

[8] He has been an opponent of the proposals for an overhead electricity line from Beauly to Denny, arguing for an underground alternative.

[13] Brown won re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, representing the newly created Clackmannanshire and Dunblane.

On 18 May, he was reshuffled to the position of Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, while still maintaining responsibility for veterans affairs.

[22][23][24] In July 2017, Brown wrote to UK ministers on the need to continue legal protected status for the definition of Scotch whisky post-Brexit amid fears that in a future trade deal the USA “would support a relaxation of the definition of whisky, which would open the market up to a number of products which do not currently meet that standard.”[25][26][27] Later on in 2017 he visited the US and Canada in a series of speaking engagements to promote economic ties between North American business communities and Scotland.

[31][32][33] Brown also announced that he would chair three national assemblies to debate the SNP's 2018 Growth Commission report on an independent Scotland's economic prospects.

In the June 2018 reshuffle of the Scottish Government, Brown stood down as Economy Secretary to focus on his role as deputy leader, He was replaced by Derek Mackay.