General election: Brown and Darling prepare to leave the stage

When Britain votes on Thursday, the drama will be played out without some of its leading characters, notably two Scots whose records hang over this election: Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.

Mr Brown is leaving Westminster at the age of 64, although the Labour former prime minister has been a rather ethereal figure in British politics since leaving Downing Street five years ago.

Elected in his home town of Kirkcaldy in 1983, he has been largely invisible in the House of Commons in recent years, although the economic reputation of the last Labour government has dominated this election.

Ed Miliband, Labour party leader, has defended Mr Brown's record on schools, hospitals and social infrastructure that were rebuilt after a big increase in public spending that began in 2000, while Mr Brown was chancellor.

Mr Miliband has disowned his predecessor's record on bank regulation but does not accept he was profligate. Asked in a BBC Question Time debate whether he thought Labour overspent, Mr Miliband said simply: "No, I don't."

Last year, Mr Brown briefly returned to prominence with a passionate denunciation of Scottish nationalists on the day before the independence referendum. "This is not their flag, their country, their culture, their streets," he roared. "This is everyone's flag, everyone's country, everyone's culture and everyone's streets."

By his side in Glasgow that day, was Mr Darling, who succeeded him at the Treasury in 2007. "That was one of the best speeches I've heard," Mr Darling muttered as his former boss left the stage.

Mr Darling, who is standing down as MP for Edinburgh South West, won plaudits for his calm handling of the 2008 financial crisis and for managing a fraught personal relationship with Mr Brown.

The 61-year-old went on to front the Better Together campaign against Scottish independence, but his ultimate victory with a 55-45 no vote now appears to have been only a temporary setback for the Scottish National party.

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Their decision to make their careers at Westminster is seen by some as a contributory factor to Labour's decline in Scotland: the party's best people have always headed south to forge political careers.

Another Scottish heavyweight, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, is also stepping down at the election, although his 40-year career was tarnished at its end when he was caught offering advice to a fictitious Chinese company in a cash-for-access scandal.

First elected as MP for Edinburgh Pentlands in 1974, the former foreign secretary's career was interrupted in 1997 when he lost his seat - along with all other Conservative MPs - in a party wipeout in Scotland.

But he revived his career as MP for Kensington & Chelsea in 2005 and established a reputation as an acute and respected party grandee.

<>Another Conservative former foreign secretary who is leaving the stage is William Hague, whose career has enjoyed a late flourishing after his disastrous stint as party leader in the aftermath of Tony Blair's 1997 landslide.

Mr Hague, MP for Richmond in Yorkshire since 1989, took time out from frontline politics to establish a reputation as an author and fine public speaker.

As foreign secretary in latter years he enjoyed the status of elder statesman, although he is still only 54 and emerged as an unlikely campaign partner of Angelina Jolie in the fight against sexual violence in conflict zones.

Completing a trio of former foreign secretaries stepping down is Jack Straw, the 68-year-old Labour MP for Blackburn who first won the seat in 1979 - taking over from his former boss Barbara Castle.

Mr Straw, who was caught in the same sting as Sir Malcolm, has been at the centre of Labour intrigue and top level politics for three decades, effortlessly switching his allegiance from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.

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