Brown apologises for 'bigot' gaffe
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised "profusely" after being caught on microphone branding a woman who spoke to him on the campaign trail "bigoted".
The PM's comments came as he was driven away from an event in Rochdale at which 65-year-old widow Gillian Duffy tackled him in front of the cameras about Britain's financial problems, taxes, student financing and immigration.
Unaware that his radio microphone was still connected, Mr Brown told an aide that the encounter had been "a disaster" and said he should never have been made to speak with Mrs Duffy, adding: "She was just a bigoted woman."
Labour has changed its campaigning tactics in recent days to expose Mr Brown to ordinary voters more, after complaints that he had been appearing only in carefully controlled conditions in front of Labour supporters.
Immediately following her discussion with Mr Brown, Mrs Duffy said she would vote Labour and thought the PM was "nice".
However, in his car, a clearly angry PM was telling his aide: "That was a disaster - they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? It's just ridiculous..." Asked what Mrs Duffy had said, he replied: "Everything, she was just a bigoted woman."
After hearing of the PM's comments, Mrs Duffy said he owed her an apology: "I'm very upset. He's an educated person. Why has he come out with words like that? He's supposed to be leading the country and he's calling an ordinary woman who's come up and asked questions that most people would ask him... It's going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this national debt, and he's calling me a bigot."
Brown's spokesman later said the Prime Minister had phoned Mrs Duffy personally to apologise.
Speaking on BBC Radio 2's 'Jeremy Vine Show', Mr Brown said: "I do apologise if I said anything which is hurtful and I will apologise to her personally."
As his comments were played back to him in the radio studio, Mr Brown put his head in his hand, and then said: "Of course I apologise if I've said anything that's been offensive and I would never put myself in a position where I would want to say anything like that about a woman I'd met.
"I blame myself for what is done, but you've got to remember that this was me being helpful to the broadcasters, with my microphone on, rushing into the car because I had to get to another appointment and they have chosen to play my private conversation. These things can happen, I apologise profusely to the lady concerned."
Shadow chancellor George Osborne told Sky News: "We have found out the Prime Minister's internal thoughts and I think they speak for themselves and the Prime Minister has got a lot of explaining to do. The thing about general elections is that they reveal the truth about people."
