Gordon Brown, despite his dark, smouldering looks, has never been much of a ladies' man.
He has, even so, set hearts fluttering and has in his time been voted among the 100 sexiest men on the planet, coming in at 97.

However, his romantic life has been hampered by his "politicoholic" tendencies which have not helped to endear him to some of the young women who have crossed his path.

This unromantic trait was summed up by one of his girlfriends of his student days, Princess Margarita of Romania, eldest daughter of the exiled King Michael of Romania.

When their relationship finally ended, she said: "It was a very solid and romantic story. I never stopped loving him, but one day it didn't seem right any more.
"It was politics, politics, politics and I needed nurturing."

Another girlfriend was Dr Sheena McDonald, a TV interviewer, who was to suffer brain damage in an accident involving a police car. She later recovered.

His girlfriends were generally turned off by his obsession with politics and economics. Indeed, it was said that in his young days he used to depart on holiday, not with snorkel equipment but with his idea of holiday reading, sackloads of dusty tomes on economics and the Labour Party.

In January this year Brown was voted in a poll of 10,000 women the 97th sexiest man on the planet, ahead of the Radio One DJ Chris Moyles and Pete Doherty (who slipped from 18th to 100th in the course of 12 months) but behind Simon Cowell of The X Factor fame.

And at the age of 55, he was not only a newcomer to the list but the oldest man on it.

Helen Johnston, the editor of New Woman magazine, sponsors of the poll, said: "With regard to Gordon Brown sneaking in for the first time at 97th, power is undoubtedly an aphrodisiac, but we've seen a softer side to the Iron Chancellor recently and women definitely respond to a more human approach."
However, Ms Johnston spoiled that somewhat by adding a joke: "But 97 is still a long way from No 10."

Brown was also portrayed as a romantic hero by Jenny Colgan in her novel Where Have All The Boys Gone?
She explained: "It is the brooding, Heathcliffian, 'man with a mission' element. Plus, he has a beautiful smile you almost never see."

But one woman who remained cold towards him was Cherie Blair, who once allegedly accused him, under her breath, of lying during a speech he made at a Labour Party conference.

The Prime Minister made a joke about this later in that conference by saying that he at least did not have to worry about his wife running off with the man next door.