Election uproar: Brown calls voter who quizzed him on immigration a "bigoted woman."
Many have said that if the leftie Labour Party wish to win this year's General Election they'll have to get rid of Gordon Brown and find a new leader. Many observers, both in the Labour Party and other parties, and members of the public have viewed dour Scot Gordon Brown as a liability who isn't able to socialise and communicate with people in the normal way.
But Labour stuck with him, determined that they have the right man for the job. But today, after calling a voter a "bigoted woman, Prime Minister Brown has proved just what a danger he is to Labour's hopes of winning a fourth term in office.
Brown made the comment, which could be as damaging to Labour's election hopes as the 1992 General Election's "War of Jennifer's Ear", whilst out on the campaign trail in Rochdale, Lancashire.
Brown was out and about in the small town meeting members of the public, hoping to get as many votes as he can. He even met a group of convicts in their humiliating pink jackets forced to do community work.
Then he bumped into 65 year old Gillian Duffy, a lifelong Labour supporter, who quizzed him on his Government's terrible record on immigration, complaining about the huge influx of Eastern Europeans that the Labour Government has allowed to flood into this country in recent years.
After the exchange, Brown got back into his car, and that's where he made the offensive comments. The problem was that he didn't realise that his Sky News microphone was on, and within minutes his comments where being beamed out on the 24 hours news stations.
As the car drove away, Brown was heard saying: 'That was a disaster. You should never have put me with that woman.
She's just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour.'
The Scotsman even made people even more suspicious that he always passes the blame for his failings onto somebody else by blaming his election aide for having the woman brought to him.
Later, he was filmed having an interview on a BBC radio station looking dismayed and mortified after being told the news that his comments were heard and were being played on BBC News 24 and Sky News.
Brown then went to Gillian's house to issue a grovelling apology. But, despite being a lifelong Labour supporter, she told the BBC and Sky that she won't be voting for them this time.
And there'll probably be millions more who are thinking they won't vote for a party who thinks anyone who raises legitimate concerns about immigrations is a "bigot."
Tory leader David Cameron must now think that his chances of being elected Prime Minister in just eight days' time have suddenly rocketed.
Gordon goes back to grovel in person to life-long Labour grandmother he called a 'bigot' for complaining about immigration
By Daily Mail Reporter
28th April 2010
Daily Mail
'That was a disaster. You should never have put me with that woman.
Whose idea was that?
It’s Sue [Nye, a Brown election aide] I think. It’s just ridiculous.
Asked what Mrs Duffy had said, he is heard to say: 'Oh, everything... She's just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour.
'I mean it's just ridiculous. I don't know why Sue brought her up towards me.'
Thanks for coming: Mr Brown waves goodbye as he leaves the Rochdale campaign stop. In the car he called Mrs Duffy a "bigot", not realising his Sky microphone was on
A humiliated Gordon Brown was forced to drive to a voter's house today to apologise, hours after he was caught out calling her a 'bigoted woman'.
The Prime Minister had to tear up his schedule to visit Gillian Duffy, 65, after his gaffe threatened to totally undermine Labour's election campaign.
Mr Brown had already apologised to the life-long Labour voter, who had quizzed him about immigration levels, by phone after realising his comment was recorded on tape.
But in farcical scenes, he also went to her terraced home this afternoon to speak to her in person to try and mitigate the damage. He emerged looking chastened after an agonising 40 minutes inside her home in Rochdale, Lancs.
He said: 'I'm mortified by what has happened. I've given her my sincere apologies. She has accepted there was misunderstanding. I am a penitent sinner, sometimes you say things by mistake . . . you say things quickly. I simply misunderstood some of the words she used.'
Despite the frantic damage-limitation exercise, the slip-up risks delivering a potential mortal blow to Mr Brown's hopes of staying in Number Ten.
Brown returns: The Prime Minister arrives back at Gillian Duffy's house to apologise for calling her a bigot
His attack on the pensioner was recorded because the Prime Minister failed to realise he still had his Sky News microphone on after meeting her in Rochdale.
Sky TV then broadcast the remarks within minutes as Brown headed to his next stop, a Radio 2 studio interview with Jeremy Vine.
When he arrived he was forced to listen to the comments on a tape. Mr Brown held his head in his hands as the conversation was replayed and he realised the enormity of his gaffe.
To compound the disaster his obvious dismay was again being filmed and broadcast live for the world to see.
Mrs Duffy had spotted the Prime Minister in the street during his visit to Rochdale and took the chance to lambast him about Labour's record.
She told him she had always supported Labour but was unhappy about immigration levels, the national debt, tuition fees and welfare policy.
'My family have voted Labour all their lives - my father even sung Red Flag - but now I am ashamed of saying I'm Labour, she said.
She told the Prime Minister: 'You can't say anything about immigrants. All these eastern Europeans - where are they coming from?'
The complaint left Mr Brown furious and as he climbed into his car to be swept to his next meeting, he appeared to punch one of the seats.
'That was a disaster - they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? It's just ridiculous,' he said.
Asked what she had told him, he replied: 'Everything, she was just a bigoted woman.'
Confrontation: Gordon Brown speaks to resident Gillian Duffy in Rochdale today
The episode will compound a reputation he has already gathered for having a bad temper and bullying and blaming subordinates when things go wrong.
Mrs Duffy said she was 'very annoyed': 'I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but if that's what he said I'm very upset. I'm very annoyed.'
'It was about tax being paid on pensions and the national debt. It is very upsetting, I am very upset. He is an educated person. Why has he come out with words like that?
'He's calling an ordinary person who has asked him questions that normal people would ask him. And he's calling me a bigot? I am [a life-long Labour supporter]. I will not be sending my postal vote.'
The gaffe is the latest in a series of blunders to befall Mr Brown's faltering campaign.
Yesterday the children's cartoon figure Peppa Pig pulled out of a party event rather than be seen with two Cabinet ministers, while the Prime Minister was forced to pose with an Elvis impersonator on the weekend.
The Prime Minister quickly phoned Mrs Duffy to apologise later visited.
He was accosted in the street after visiting a community payback scheme in Rochdale.
The grandmother tackled him on a series of issues including the national debt, taxes, student financing and immigration.
During their exchange in the street, Mrs Duffy also complained about people on benefits.
'There are too many who aren't vulnerable and they can claim, and people who are vulnerable can't get claims - can't get it,' she said.
The Prime Minister and Mrs Duffy talk in Rochdale today. Mr Brown's microphone can be seen on his lapel
Mr Brown, who Labour sources have stressed is trying to re-double his efforts to meet 'real people' on the campaign, told the grandmother: 'But they shouldn't be doing that. There is no life on the dole for people any more.'
As he went to get into his car, the Prime Minister told her: 'Very nice to meet you, very nice to meet you.'
Mrs Duffy told reporters afterwards she was a lifelong Labour voter.
Asked earlier what she thought of the Prime Minister, she said: 'He was very nice.'
But Mrs Duffy said she would not now be voting in the General Election.
Pressed on whether she still wanted Mr Brown in Number 10, she said: 'I'm not bothered whether he does or not now. I don't think he will.'
She urged the PM to go out among the public and 'find out what's going on in our lives'.
She said she had not planned to speak to Mr Brown but saw him 'walking up the street' and thought she would ask him what he would do about the national debt.
'I thought he was understanding but he wasn't was he, the way he's come out with the comments ...'
Realisation: Mr Brown on the BBC's Jeremy Vine show is told he is about to be played the comments he made about Gillian Duffy
On no, not another Jennifer's Ear: Mr Brown hears the recording for the first time
Mrs Duffy agreed with reporters that the Prime Minister should apologise to her, adding: 'Not personal - I don't want to speak to him again really.'
She added: 'I want to know why those comments I said there, why I was called a bigot.'
Mrs Duffy, who has a daughter and two grandchildren, used to work with handicapped children for Rochdale council before she retired. Her husband, who was a painter and decorator, died of cancer four years ago.
Shorty after the incident the Prime Minister was played the comments in an interview on Radio Two where a visibly shaken Mr Brown immediately apologised.
Cheers, Gordon!: David Cameron's election hopes have been given a massive boost
'I apologise if I have said anything like that. What I think she was raising with me was an issue about immigration and saying that there were too many people from Eastern Europe in the country.
'I do apologise if I have said anything that has been hurtful and I will apologise to her personally.'
Very angry: Gillian Duffy stands outside her Rochdale house this afternoon after receiving a personal apology from Gordon Brown
Mr Brown added: 'Of course she is allowed to express her view and I was saying that. The problem was I was dealing with a question she raised about immigration and I wasn't given a chance to answer it because we had a whole melee of press around her.
'But of course I apologise if I had said anything that has been offensive and I would never put myself in a position where I would want to say anything like that about a woman I met.
'It was a question about immigration that I think was annoying.
'I am blaming myself and I blame myself for what is done.
'But you have got to remember this was me being helpful to the broadcasters with my microphone on rushing into the car because I had to get to another appointment.
'They have chosen to play my private conversation with the person who was in the car with me. I know these things can happen. I apologise profusely to the lady concerned.
'I don't think she is that, I think it was just the view she expressed that I was worried about that I couldn't respond to.'
The 1992 War of Jennifer's Ear
The War of Jennifer's Ear is the name given to a 1992 controversy in United Kingdom politics, between the opposition Labour Party and the governing Conservative Party. The name is an allusion to the War of Jenkins' Ear, an actual armed conflict of the 18th century (fought between Britain and Spain from 1739 to 1748 ).
In the midst of the 1992 general election campaign, on Tuesday 24 March, Labour ran a Party Election Broadcast about a five year old girl with glue ear who waited a year for the simple operation to insert vents. This case was contrasted with the ability of those able to afford private treatment – which had been granted tax breaks by the Conservatives – to get treatment quickly. The party hoped to highlight what it saw as the mismanagement and underfunding of the National Health Service (NHS) under the Conservative government. Labour leader Neil Kinnock employed the slogan: "If you want to vote Conservative, don't fall ill".
Under British election regulations, such broadcasts are rationed by formula among main parties, and terrestrial broadcasters are obliged to run them on set days, in peaktime schedules. Each broadcast therefore has more impact on political debate than in unregulated systems.
The story of the broadcast was described by one press officer – Julie Hall, Neil Kinnock's press secretary, as based on an actual case. In fact while a particular case had been the starting point of the creative team that had produced the broadcast – working from a letter by the girl's parent to Robin Cook, the shadow health secretary, they denied it was meant to be a recounting of her case.
Unfortunately for the Labour Party, the girl in question was the granddaughter of a Conservative Party member, who gave the Conservatives advance warning of the claims to be made in the broadcast. Conflicting accounts of the details of the case quickly surfaced. The mass circulation tabloid, The Sun, ran the story: "If Kinnock will tell lies about a sick little girl, will he ever tell the truth about anything?
The story though was broken by Peter Hitchens, then of the Daily Express, now of the Daily Mail.
In subsequent press discussion, Labour's point about healthcare was overshadowed by debate about the ethics of involving a young girl in national politics, and over which side made her identity public.
In subsequent press discussion, Labour's point about healthcare was overshadowed by debate about the ethics of involving a young girl in national politics, and over which side made her identity public. (Her first name, Jennifer, was leaked by Labour press secretary Julie Hall on the 26th March). The view inside the Labour Party was, however, that the huge volume of coverage the story generated in the UK's local and regional media did the party tremendous good. However, as told by Philip Gould the controversy made the party back off the issue of health at a national level.
The Conservative Party went on to win the 1992 election with a narrow majority of 21 seats. Labour leader Neil Kinnock resigned three days afterwards. Jennifer's father, John Bennett, went on to become a critic of the health provision achieved by Tony Blair's Labour government.
Mr Brown's spokesman said the Prime Minister just 'letting off steam': This is exactly the sort of conversation that is important in an election campaign and which he will continue to have with voters.'
Chancellor Alistair Darling stressed that Mr Brown had apologised for the incident and said the Prime Minister knew 'he shouldn't have said it'.
He told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: 'He has apologised, that apology is profuse and I think he is well aware of the fact that he shouldn't have said this.
'I know the lady concerned is upset for understandable reasons, but the Prime Minister has apologised.'
Asked if it would have a big impact on the campaign, Mr Darling said: 'I think the election campaign will be decided not just on individuals but it will be decided on what the party stand for.'
Mr Darling dismissed as 'nonsense' claims that the incident would give ammunition to critics within Labour who wanted to get rid of Mr Brown.
'Gordon is a man of considerable strengths and considerable resilience and of considerable substance,' he said.
'This is something that he knows he shouldn't have said. He has apologised for it but I think and I hope people will judge him in the round.'
OTHER GREAT OFF-MIC MOMENTS IN POLITICS
In July 1993 John Major's premiership was plunged into crisis after he described three Eurosceptic Cabinet colleagues as 'bastards' in comments accidentally recorded after a TV interview.
In 2000 Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott made a mess of a TV interview before realising it was live.
As he discussed Labour's housing plans he said: 'People who are living in a single house - can we do that again? I made that crap.'
An embarrassing pause followed before interviewer Nick Robinson told Mr Prescott that they were still live.
Perhaps the most notorious gaffe of all was committed by former US President Ronald Reagan.
Just minutes before a radio interview at the height of the Cold War in 1984, Mr Reagan said: 'My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever.
'The bombing begins in five minutes.'
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said Gordon Brown's comments speak for themselves: 'We have found out the Prime Minister's internal thoughts. I think they speak for themselves.
'The Prime Minister has got a lot of explaining to do. I think he certainly should apologise. The thing about general elections is that they reveal the truth about people.'
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg added: 'You should always try to answer the questions as best you can.
'He has been recorded saying what he has said and will have to answer for that.'
Labour's campaign chief Lord Mandelson said Mr Brown was 'deeply upset by the hurt caused to Mrs Duffy' and insisted it was not 'his view, either privately or publicly'.
'He has explained that to Mrs Duffy and apologised unreservedly as you would expect him to do.
There's no justification but politicians are human and they have these conversations, they have these encounters, they get into a car and say things in the heat of the moment.
'Sometimes you say things you simply do not mean, the moment you say them you regret it.
'What will upset Gordon is the hurt caused to her, it's not in his nature to want to hurt people like that that's why he will have acted immediately as he did. He is very upset.'
He added: 'He certainly wasn't blaming anyone else, other than himself... We're all slightly tired, it's been a very long campaign. That isn't an excuse for letting off steam as he did but we are all human, we do say things that we don't believe. You don't expect them to be picked up by a microphone.
'It's very regrettable that he did, there's no justification for it. I'm afraid these things happen in politics, they happen in life. The right thing to do is what he did - to apologise.'
The Business Secretary insisted Labour was still a party that would listen to voters' concerns and respected their views.
He described the Prime Minister as 'a man not just of political conviction but of a deep sense of moral purpose as well and compassion and fellow feeling for other people'.
'That is why it will so upset him that in the heat of the moment he has in a sense betrayed those views and given a completely different impression. He feels mortified by the hurt to Mrs Duffy,' he said.
Of course people will judge him, one way or the other but I can tell you he's feeling now extremely sorry. It's not because he's been caught out.
He doesn't have these private feelings, it's not what he believes.'
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: 'Everybody in every walk of life will mutter things underneath their breath they wouldn't want people to know about.'
'In an election campaign, you have got to give as good as you get but treat whatever questions you receive with the respect they deserve. I think saying something clearly fairly insulting to the lady in question is not right, it's not right at all.'
dailymail.co.uk
Many have said that if the leftie Labour Party wish to win this year's General Election they'll have to get rid of Gordon Brown and find a new leader. Many observers, both in the Labour Party and other parties, and members of the public have viewed dour Scot Gordon Brown as a liability who isn't able to socialise and communicate with people in the normal way.
But Labour stuck with him, determined that they have the right man for the job. But today, after calling a voter a "bigoted woman, Prime Minister Brown has proved just what a danger he is to Labour's hopes of winning a fourth term in office.
Brown made the comment, which could be as damaging to Labour's election hopes as the 1992 General Election's "War of Jennifer's Ear", whilst out on the campaign trail in Rochdale, Lancashire.
Brown was out and about in the small town meeting members of the public, hoping to get as many votes as he can. He even met a group of convicts in their humiliating pink jackets forced to do community work.
Then he bumped into 65 year old Gillian Duffy, a lifelong Labour supporter, who quizzed him on his Government's terrible record on immigration, complaining about the huge influx of Eastern Europeans that the Labour Government has allowed to flood into this country in recent years.
After the exchange, Brown got back into his car, and that's where he made the offensive comments. The problem was that he didn't realise that his Sky News microphone was on, and within minutes his comments where being beamed out on the 24 hours news stations.
As the car drove away, Brown was heard saying: 'That was a disaster. You should never have put me with that woman.
She's just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour.'
The Scotsman even made people even more suspicious that he always passes the blame for his failings onto somebody else by blaming his election aide for having the woman brought to him.
Later, he was filmed having an interview on a BBC radio station looking dismayed and mortified after being told the news that his comments were heard and were being played on BBC News 24 and Sky News.
Brown then went to Gillian's house to issue a grovelling apology. But, despite being a lifelong Labour supporter, she told the BBC and Sky that she won't be voting for them this time.
And there'll probably be millions more who are thinking they won't vote for a party who thinks anyone who raises legitimate concerns about immigrations is a "bigot."
Tory leader David Cameron must now think that his chances of being elected Prime Minister in just eight days' time have suddenly rocketed.
Gordon goes back to grovel in person to life-long Labour grandmother he called a 'bigot' for complaining about immigration
By Daily Mail Reporter
28th April 2010
Daily Mail
- Huge gaffe as PM insults voter, not realising Sky microphone was on
- Pensioner is life-long Labour supporter about to send postal vote
- World sees him hold his head in his hands as comments are replayed on radio
- First he apologises by phone, now he goes to her home
- Lord Mandelson: He's deeply upset, this is not his public or private view
'That was a disaster. You should never have put me with that woman.
Whose idea was that?
It’s Sue [Nye, a Brown election aide] I think. It’s just ridiculous.
Asked what Mrs Duffy had said, he is heard to say: 'Oh, everything... She's just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour.
'I mean it's just ridiculous. I don't know why Sue brought her up towards me.'
Thanks for coming: Mr Brown waves goodbye as he leaves the Rochdale campaign stop. In the car he called Mrs Duffy a "bigot", not realising his Sky microphone was on
A humiliated Gordon Brown was forced to drive to a voter's house today to apologise, hours after he was caught out calling her a 'bigoted woman'.
The Prime Minister had to tear up his schedule to visit Gillian Duffy, 65, after his gaffe threatened to totally undermine Labour's election campaign.
Mr Brown had already apologised to the life-long Labour voter, who had quizzed him about immigration levels, by phone after realising his comment was recorded on tape.
But in farcical scenes, he also went to her terraced home this afternoon to speak to her in person to try and mitigate the damage. He emerged looking chastened after an agonising 40 minutes inside her home in Rochdale, Lancs.
He said: 'I'm mortified by what has happened. I've given her my sincere apologies. She has accepted there was misunderstanding. I am a penitent sinner, sometimes you say things by mistake . . . you say things quickly. I simply misunderstood some of the words she used.'
Despite the frantic damage-limitation exercise, the slip-up risks delivering a potential mortal blow to Mr Brown's hopes of staying in Number Ten.
Brown returns: The Prime Minister arrives back at Gillian Duffy's house to apologise for calling her a bigot
His attack on the pensioner was recorded because the Prime Minister failed to realise he still had his Sky News microphone on after meeting her in Rochdale.
Sky TV then broadcast the remarks within minutes as Brown headed to his next stop, a Radio 2 studio interview with Jeremy Vine.
When he arrived he was forced to listen to the comments on a tape. Mr Brown held his head in his hands as the conversation was replayed and he realised the enormity of his gaffe.
To compound the disaster his obvious dismay was again being filmed and broadcast live for the world to see.
Mrs Duffy had spotted the Prime Minister in the street during his visit to Rochdale and took the chance to lambast him about Labour's record.
She told him she had always supported Labour but was unhappy about immigration levels, the national debt, tuition fees and welfare policy.
'My family have voted Labour all their lives - my father even sung Red Flag - but now I am ashamed of saying I'm Labour, she said.
She told the Prime Minister: 'You can't say anything about immigrants. All these eastern Europeans - where are they coming from?'
The complaint left Mr Brown furious and as he climbed into his car to be swept to his next meeting, he appeared to punch one of the seats.
'That was a disaster - they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? It's just ridiculous,' he said.
Asked what she had told him, he replied: 'Everything, she was just a bigoted woman.'
Confrontation: Gordon Brown speaks to resident Gillian Duffy in Rochdale today
The episode will compound a reputation he has already gathered for having a bad temper and bullying and blaming subordinates when things go wrong.
Mrs Duffy said she was 'very annoyed': 'I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but if that's what he said I'm very upset. I'm very annoyed.'
'It was about tax being paid on pensions and the national debt. It is very upsetting, I am very upset. He is an educated person. Why has he come out with words like that?
'He's calling an ordinary person who has asked him questions that normal people would ask him. And he's calling me a bigot? I am [a life-long Labour supporter]. I will not be sending my postal vote.'
The gaffe is the latest in a series of blunders to befall Mr Brown's faltering campaign.
Yesterday the children's cartoon figure Peppa Pig pulled out of a party event rather than be seen with two Cabinet ministers, while the Prime Minister was forced to pose with an Elvis impersonator on the weekend.
The Prime Minister quickly phoned Mrs Duffy to apologise later visited.
He was accosted in the street after visiting a community payback scheme in Rochdale.
The grandmother tackled him on a series of issues including the national debt, taxes, student financing and immigration.
During their exchange in the street, Mrs Duffy also complained about people on benefits.
'There are too many who aren't vulnerable and they can claim, and people who are vulnerable can't get claims - can't get it,' she said.
The Prime Minister and Mrs Duffy talk in Rochdale today. Mr Brown's microphone can be seen on his lapel
Mr Brown, who Labour sources have stressed is trying to re-double his efforts to meet 'real people' on the campaign, told the grandmother: 'But they shouldn't be doing that. There is no life on the dole for people any more.'
As he went to get into his car, the Prime Minister told her: 'Very nice to meet you, very nice to meet you.'
Mrs Duffy told reporters afterwards she was a lifelong Labour voter.
Asked earlier what she thought of the Prime Minister, she said: 'He was very nice.'
But Mrs Duffy said she would not now be voting in the General Election.
Pressed on whether she still wanted Mr Brown in Number 10, she said: 'I'm not bothered whether he does or not now. I don't think he will.'
She urged the PM to go out among the public and 'find out what's going on in our lives'.
She said she had not planned to speak to Mr Brown but saw him 'walking up the street' and thought she would ask him what he would do about the national debt.
'I thought he was understanding but he wasn't was he, the way he's come out with the comments ...'
Realisation: Mr Brown on the BBC's Jeremy Vine show is told he is about to be played the comments he made about Gillian Duffy
On no, not another Jennifer's Ear: Mr Brown hears the recording for the first time
Mrs Duffy agreed with reporters that the Prime Minister should apologise to her, adding: 'Not personal - I don't want to speak to him again really.'
She added: 'I want to know why those comments I said there, why I was called a bigot.'
Mrs Duffy, who has a daughter and two grandchildren, used to work with handicapped children for Rochdale council before she retired. Her husband, who was a painter and decorator, died of cancer four years ago.
Shorty after the incident the Prime Minister was played the comments in an interview on Radio Two where a visibly shaken Mr Brown immediately apologised.
Cheers, Gordon!: David Cameron's election hopes have been given a massive boost
'I apologise if I have said anything like that. What I think she was raising with me was an issue about immigration and saying that there were too many people from Eastern Europe in the country.
'I do apologise if I have said anything that has been hurtful and I will apologise to her personally.'
Very angry: Gillian Duffy stands outside her Rochdale house this afternoon after receiving a personal apology from Gordon Brown
Mr Brown added: 'Of course she is allowed to express her view and I was saying that. The problem was I was dealing with a question she raised about immigration and I wasn't given a chance to answer it because we had a whole melee of press around her.
'But of course I apologise if I had said anything that has been offensive and I would never put myself in a position where I would want to say anything like that about a woman I met.
'It was a question about immigration that I think was annoying.
'I am blaming myself and I blame myself for what is done.
'But you have got to remember this was me being helpful to the broadcasters with my microphone on rushing into the car because I had to get to another appointment.
'They have chosen to play my private conversation with the person who was in the car with me. I know these things can happen. I apologise profusely to the lady concerned.
'I don't think she is that, I think it was just the view she expressed that I was worried about that I couldn't respond to.'
The 1992 War of Jennifer's Ear
The War of Jennifer's Ear is the name given to a 1992 controversy in United Kingdom politics, between the opposition Labour Party and the governing Conservative Party. The name is an allusion to the War of Jenkins' Ear, an actual armed conflict of the 18th century (fought between Britain and Spain from 1739 to 1748 ).
In the midst of the 1992 general election campaign, on Tuesday 24 March, Labour ran a Party Election Broadcast about a five year old girl with glue ear who waited a year for the simple operation to insert vents. This case was contrasted with the ability of those able to afford private treatment – which had been granted tax breaks by the Conservatives – to get treatment quickly. The party hoped to highlight what it saw as the mismanagement and underfunding of the National Health Service (NHS) under the Conservative government. Labour leader Neil Kinnock employed the slogan: "If you want to vote Conservative, don't fall ill".
Under British election regulations, such broadcasts are rationed by formula among main parties, and terrestrial broadcasters are obliged to run them on set days, in peaktime schedules. Each broadcast therefore has more impact on political debate than in unregulated systems.
The story of the broadcast was described by one press officer – Julie Hall, Neil Kinnock's press secretary, as based on an actual case. In fact while a particular case had been the starting point of the creative team that had produced the broadcast – working from a letter by the girl's parent to Robin Cook, the shadow health secretary, they denied it was meant to be a recounting of her case.
Unfortunately for the Labour Party, the girl in question was the granddaughter of a Conservative Party member, who gave the Conservatives advance warning of the claims to be made in the broadcast. Conflicting accounts of the details of the case quickly surfaced. The mass circulation tabloid, The Sun, ran the story: "If Kinnock will tell lies about a sick little girl, will he ever tell the truth about anything?
The story though was broken by Peter Hitchens, then of the Daily Express, now of the Daily Mail.
In subsequent press discussion, Labour's point about healthcare was overshadowed by debate about the ethics of involving a young girl in national politics, and over which side made her identity public.
In subsequent press discussion, Labour's point about healthcare was overshadowed by debate about the ethics of involving a young girl in national politics, and over which side made her identity public. (Her first name, Jennifer, was leaked by Labour press secretary Julie Hall on the 26th March). The view inside the Labour Party was, however, that the huge volume of coverage the story generated in the UK's local and regional media did the party tremendous good. However, as told by Philip Gould the controversy made the party back off the issue of health at a national level.
The Conservative Party went on to win the 1992 election with a narrow majority of 21 seats. Labour leader Neil Kinnock resigned three days afterwards. Jennifer's father, John Bennett, went on to become a critic of the health provision achieved by Tony Blair's Labour government.
Mr Brown's spokesman said the Prime Minister just 'letting off steam': This is exactly the sort of conversation that is important in an election campaign and which he will continue to have with voters.'
Chancellor Alistair Darling stressed that Mr Brown had apologised for the incident and said the Prime Minister knew 'he shouldn't have said it'.
He told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: 'He has apologised, that apology is profuse and I think he is well aware of the fact that he shouldn't have said this.
'I know the lady concerned is upset for understandable reasons, but the Prime Minister has apologised.'
Asked if it would have a big impact on the campaign, Mr Darling said: 'I think the election campaign will be decided not just on individuals but it will be decided on what the party stand for.'
Mr Darling dismissed as 'nonsense' claims that the incident would give ammunition to critics within Labour who wanted to get rid of Mr Brown.
'Gordon is a man of considerable strengths and considerable resilience and of considerable substance,' he said.
'This is something that he knows he shouldn't have said. He has apologised for it but I think and I hope people will judge him in the round.'
OTHER GREAT OFF-MIC MOMENTS IN POLITICS
In July 1993 John Major's premiership was plunged into crisis after he described three Eurosceptic Cabinet colleagues as 'bastards' in comments accidentally recorded after a TV interview.
In 2000 Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott made a mess of a TV interview before realising it was live.
As he discussed Labour's housing plans he said: 'People who are living in a single house - can we do that again? I made that crap.'
An embarrassing pause followed before interviewer Nick Robinson told Mr Prescott that they were still live.
Perhaps the most notorious gaffe of all was committed by former US President Ronald Reagan.
Just minutes before a radio interview at the height of the Cold War in 1984, Mr Reagan said: 'My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever.
'The bombing begins in five minutes.'
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said Gordon Brown's comments speak for themselves: 'We have found out the Prime Minister's internal thoughts. I think they speak for themselves.
'The Prime Minister has got a lot of explaining to do. I think he certainly should apologise. The thing about general elections is that they reveal the truth about people.'
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg added: 'You should always try to answer the questions as best you can.
'He has been recorded saying what he has said and will have to answer for that.'
Labour's campaign chief Lord Mandelson said Mr Brown was 'deeply upset by the hurt caused to Mrs Duffy' and insisted it was not 'his view, either privately or publicly'.
'He has explained that to Mrs Duffy and apologised unreservedly as you would expect him to do.
There's no justification but politicians are human and they have these conversations, they have these encounters, they get into a car and say things in the heat of the moment.
'Sometimes you say things you simply do not mean, the moment you say them you regret it.
'What will upset Gordon is the hurt caused to her, it's not in his nature to want to hurt people like that that's why he will have acted immediately as he did. He is very upset.'
He added: 'He certainly wasn't blaming anyone else, other than himself... We're all slightly tired, it's been a very long campaign. That isn't an excuse for letting off steam as he did but we are all human, we do say things that we don't believe. You don't expect them to be picked up by a microphone.
'It's very regrettable that he did, there's no justification for it. I'm afraid these things happen in politics, they happen in life. The right thing to do is what he did - to apologise.'
The Business Secretary insisted Labour was still a party that would listen to voters' concerns and respected their views.
He described the Prime Minister as 'a man not just of political conviction but of a deep sense of moral purpose as well and compassion and fellow feeling for other people'.
'That is why it will so upset him that in the heat of the moment he has in a sense betrayed those views and given a completely different impression. He feels mortified by the hurt to Mrs Duffy,' he said.
Of course people will judge him, one way or the other but I can tell you he's feeling now extremely sorry. It's not because he's been caught out.
He doesn't have these private feelings, it's not what he believes.'
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: 'Everybody in every walk of life will mutter things underneath their breath they wouldn't want people to know about.'
'In an election campaign, you have got to give as good as you get but treat whatever questions you receive with the respect they deserve. I think saying something clearly fairly insulting to the lady in question is not right, it's not right at all.'
dailymail.co.uk
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