During a 22-year career in Parliament he became known as the "miner's champion", fighting for compensation for those suffering from industrial diseases, and to improve state pensions.
Along with the majority of Labour backbenchers, Brown voted against the wartime government's decision to postpone implementation of the Beveridge report.
In 1956 he argued strongly against a bill which would allow licensed premises at airports to sell alcohol, saying that there was much evidence of aircraft being endangered by drink-sodden passengers.
In 1958 Brown, then chairman of the Lancashire and Cheshire group of Labour MPs, organised a delegation to the government calling for a complete prohibition of textile imports from Hong Kong, Pakistan and India.
A strong supporter of state ownership of the mining industry, Brown rejected moves to restrict the borrowing power of the National Coal Board.