Brown apologises for 'smeargate' emails

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today he was sorry for the “smeargate” emails that targeted top Tories and their families.

After days of pressure from Conservatives, Mr Brown finally spoke out on a visit to Glasgow and accepted “full responsibility for what happened” when his close advisor Damian McBride suggested placing internet slurs to discredit senior opposition figures.

Mr Brown said: “I am sorry about what happened.”

He added: “I take full responsibility for what happened. That’s why the person who was responsible went immediately.”

He went on: “I have said all along that, when I saw this first, I was horrified, I was shocked and I was very angry indeed.

“I think the most important thing we do is reassure people everything is being done to clean up politics in our country.

“I wrote to the people who were affected by it and expressed very deep regret for what happened.

“The person who was responsible went immediately and lost his job and I have ensured that there are new rules so this can’t happen again.

“We have done everything in our power to deal with this.”

Mr McBride quit No 10 without severance pay when it emerged he had sent emails making unfounded personal allegations about Conservatives including leader David Cameron, shadow chancellor George Osborne, his wife Frances and backbench MP Nadine Dorries.

Mr Osborne dismissed the apology as “a little late” and said Mr McBride’s emails had gone beyond the “rough and tumble” expected in politics.

“It has come a little late this apology and it is a shame we had to ask for it,” he said.

“Of course there is rough and tumble in politics and you get very used to it if you are in the frontline. But this went way beyond that and was pretty personal.

Ms Dorries dismissed the Prime Minister’s apology as “spin”.

She said: “I think the reason why he did it was that he knew he would be asked about this by reporters.

“I am pleased he said sorry but why didn’t he say it to me first? There still needs to be a full inquiry into who knew what and if there were any other emails sent.”