A sombre Brown says: I feel your pain

I FEEL your pain. That was Gordon Brown’s message yesterday to the relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Not just as prime minister, but as a father, he knew what they were going through.

And though he did not say it directly, Brown indicated that he too had experienced painful personal loss — the death of his baby daughter, Jennifer Jane, born prematurely eight years ago.

His news conference was held in No 10 shortly before the bodies of six British servicemen — five of whom were shot by a “rogue” Afghan policeman — were flown home yesterday.

The repatriation was the latest grim reminder of the growing toll the eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan is inflicting on the British forces — and one which Brown acknowledged with a tribute to bravery of the troops fighting far from home.

Brown was wearing a dark suit and tie, with a poppy providing the only splash of colour. His tone was sombre and his voice deeper than usual.

The news conference was dominated by the bitter criticism of a grieving mother who had accused him of misspelling her and her dead son’s name in a letter of condolence.

With a transcript of his telephone call to an emotional and angry Jacqui Janes published in yesterday’s Sun newspaper, Brown looked ever more careworn than usual, as if he had suffered sleepless nights as a result of the criticism he has endured over the past couple of days. It was a humiliating moment for the prime minister, whose large and ungainly handwriting on No 10 writing paper has been held up to public ridicule and scorn.

Earlier in the week, Brown was accused of not bowing his head at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

Most weeks before Prime Minister’s questions, Brown reads aloud the names of the latest British dead in Afghanistan. It has become something of a ritual to be undergone before the politicians get on with the real business of party political infighting.

But in Downing Street there was raw emotion. Brown — who has been accused at times of being shy and insensitive — was dignified and sympathetic as he sought to show that he understood the grief of the bereaved families.

Brown not only apologised to Janes for any mistakes that had been made, but also “to anybody whom I have written to, if my writing is difficult to read”.

He writes to all the families of those killed. The letters are intended to offer comfort and support and a personal gesture of sympathy from the prime minister. Yet Brown appeared genuinely shocked and upset that his letter to the mother of 20-year-old Guardsman Jamie Janes had been the cause of further anguish and upset.

“I’m a parent who understands the feelings when something goes terribly, terribly wrong and I understand how long it takes to handle the grief that we have all experienced,” he said.

Brown offered some hope to the families from his own personal experience. It would take time for them to get over such a deep loss. But he hoped Janes and other bereaved relatives would take comfort that their sons had “played an important role in the security of our country and died in such a courageous and brave way that nobody will ever forget it”.