Gordon Brown Apologizes to 'Bigoted Woman'

Gordon Brown fell all over himself apologizing yesterday after he was caught on tape calling a voter a “bigoted woman.” After a conversation about immigration with Gillian Duffy, 65, Brown got in his car muttering, “That was a disaster,” unaware that his broadcast microphone was still on. As the car drove away he said, in what he thought was private, “She was just a sort of bigoted woman.”

The tape was later played for an embarrassed Brown in a BBC radio interview. He apologized on radio, then called Duffy to apologize, and finally went to her home to apologize in person. After spending a half-hour speaking in private with the woman, Brown emerged saying he was “mortified” over the incident. “If you like, I'm a penitent sinner,” he said. “I had simply misunderstood some of the words she had used.” (More Gordon Brown stories.)