Brown Campaigns; Calls Voter Bigoted

[Sheilbh]

Jesus.  How not to do it

Gordon Brown calls Labour supporter a 'bigoted woman'

Microphone picks up comments by prime minister about Labour supporter Gillian Duffy, who had challenged him over the economy

Gordon Brown's election campaign was thrown into turmoil today after he was caught on mic calling a Labour supporter who had challenged him over the economy and immigration a "bigoted woman".

Gillian Duffy, 65, heckled the prime minister as he was interviewed live on TV in Rochdale about Labour's plans to cut the deficit, repeatedly challenging him to say he would tackle the debt. Brown ignored her intervention but was then asked by senior aides in his entourage to meet her.

After a few minutes of exchanges she told reporters that Brown was a "very nice man" and that she had voted Labour all her life and intended to do so again next week. But as he got in his car, he was still wired up to a Sky News microphone which picked up comments he then made rebuking his advisers.

He said: "That was a disaster – they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? Ridiculous."
Listen to Gordon Brown criticising Rochdale pensioner Gillian Duffy Link to this audio

Asked what she had said, he replied: "Everything, she was just a bigoted woman."

Brown later confirmed he had phoned Duffy to apologise for his remarks but not before the recording of his comments had been aired on every television bulletin. Brown's unguarded comments are likely to refocus attention back to previous allegations about the his temper and character in the runup to the all-important final TV debate.

After the heckling, Sue Nye, Brown's long-term gatekeeper and director of government relations, was seen inviting Duffy to meet with the prime minister. During the exchange between Brown and Duffy she questioned him on pensions, the deficit and tuition fees.

At one point, Duffy mentioned the presence of eastern Europeans in Britain but did not develop her argument.

The Labour party released a transcript of the exchange.

Duffy said: "We had it drummed in when I was a child ... it was education, health service and looking after the people who are vulnerable. But there's too many people now who are vulnerable but they can claim and people who are vulnerable can't get claim, can't get it."

Brown replied: "But they shouldn't be doing that, there is no life on the dole for people any more. If you are unemployed you've got to go back to work. It's six months..."

Duffy interjected: "You can't say anything about the immigrants because you're saying that you're ... but all these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?"

Brown said that although there were 1 million immigrants to Europe from Britain, there were also 1 million Britons who had moved to Europe.

At the end of the exchange Brown said: "Good to see you. Thanks very much." He got in the car and seconds later is heard saying: "That was a disaster," before calling Duffy "bigoted".

Brown later told the Jeremy Vine programme: "I apologise if I have said anything like that what I think she was raising with me was an issue about immigration and that there were too many people from eastern Europe. I apologise profusely to the lady concerned I don't think she is that. It was the view I objected to."

Footage of the interview shows Brown with his head in his hands and he responded tetchily to other questions, accusing Vine of "butting in".

Duffy has lived in Rochdale all her life, working for the council with disabled children up until her retirement five years ago. She is a widow and has a daughter and two grandchildren. Her husband, a painter and decorator, died of cancer four years ago.

Before being told of Brown's comments, Duffy had said she would still be voting Labour. She told Sky News she confronted him over the national debt and immigration and that the prime minister had seemed "understanding" and responded "pretty well".

But after hearing of his reported comments she said she was "very annoyed" and would not be voting for Labour. "I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but if that's what he said I'm very upset," she said.

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said the comments "speak for themselves and the prime minister's got a lot of explaining to do".

The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, said the remarks were regrettable. "It has been a very long campaign but that is not excuse for letting off steam as he did, but you know that is what all of us do sometimes, we are all human, we do say things we don't believe.

"You don't expect them to be picked up by a microphone, but the fact is that he doesn't believe this of Mrs Duffey he doesn't believe it either publicly or privately – he did let off steam, it is very regrettable and there is no justification for it."

Lord Mandelson said Brown was "mortified" by what had happened. "For the government and the Labour party as a whole, we are compassionate people, we care about others like Mrs Duffy, we respect her point of view."

I recommend the video.  I didn't think Brown could fall any further.  Bring back Michael Foot.

[The Brain]

What are the odds on Brown winning the election?

[Admiral Yi]

Caught it on CNN.

Seems like there's some upside though, among pro-immigration (or at least anti-anti-immigration) voters.

[Fate]

Are Brits really that racist? Mexicans are at least brown. Poles are lily white.

[Savonarola]

Al Jazeera ran a variation of this story too.  My favorite part from their article:

Odds widen

Bookmakers widened their odds against Labour winning a majority in the May 6 election to 46-1 after Brown's gaffe, from 30-1 before.

"There's no doubt in what the punters are saying: Brown has royally messed up this time," said Mike Robb, a spokesman for online betting company Betfair.

[Sheilbh]

Caught it on CNN.

Seems like there's some upside though, among pro-immigration (or at least anti-anti-immigration) voters.

No upside at all. 

[Admiral Yi]

No upside at all.

Why not?  Seems all the Languish Poms were bemoaning the anti-immigration pandering during the debate.

[Sheilbh]

Why not?  Seems all the Languish Poms were bemoaning the anti-immigration pandering during the debate.

We're very unrepresentative.  A lot of Labour's core vote is strongly anti-immigration and the woman's talking about legal immigration - that's one of the reasons why the BNP tend to do best in Labour areas.  People who are pro-immigration are far more likely to be supporting the Lib Dems.  There's a class element. 

Plus Brown's just insulted an elderly woman who's supported Labour all her life and who spent it working with disabled children.  That's never a good look.

Finally he doesn't discuss immigration or really deal with her.  He just gets into the car and bad-mouths her.  It plays into the worst impressions of politicians.

[The Brain]

Plus Brown's just insulted an elderly woman who's supported Labour all her life and who spent it working with disabled children. 

We should invite him to Languish after the election when he has more time.

[Martinus]

I don't see what the big fuss is, in terms of Brown's character, to be honest. Sure, it does look bad in terms of a PR stuff, and all the idiots will think less of him because he calls an old bigoted hag a "bigot", but I fail to see how Brown is the "bad guy" in this story - he is simply unlucky, if anything.

[Berkut]

She probably was a bigot though - does that help poor Mr. Brown out at all?

And is Brown Labour, or not-Labour?

And does it matter?

[Fate]

Plus Brown's just insulted an elderly woman who's supported Labour all her life and who spent it working with disabled children.  That's never a good look.

What does her occupation have to do with anything? I'm sure there are racist nuns and priests, but that does not excuse being a racist. It's interesting to see how far Europe hasn't progressed from 19th century conceptions of who is white enough to be part of the mainstream.

[Admiral Yi]

  Fate would have preferred that Brown punch her in the gut.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The problem Brown has is that, at a rough guess, half his vote will come from badly-educated bigots. He was unwise to let on to them what he thought about them.

She didn't let him finish many sentences did she? I'm no admirer of the man but he is HM's Prime Minister, a minimal politeness would seem to be in order IMO.

[Admiral Yi]

She didn't let him finish many sentences did she? I'm no admirer of the man but he is HM's Prime Minister, a minimal politeness would seem to be in order IMO.

That's just tough questioning.