Brown apologises to woman he called 'bigoted'

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described himself as a “penitent sinner” today after personally apologising to a voter he described as a “bigoted woman”.

Brown emerged from the Rochdale home of Gillian Duffy after a meeting lasting 39 minutes to tell waiting journalists that she had accepted his apology for his unguarded remarks.

He said: “I am mortified by what has happened. I have given her my sincere apologies. I misunderstood what she said. She has accepted that there was a misunderstanding and she has accepted my apology.

“If you like, I am a penitent sinner.”

"Sometimes you say things that you don't mean to say, sometimes you say things by mistake and sometimes when you say things you want to correct it very quickly.

"So I wanted to come here and say to Gillian I was sorry, to say that I made a mistake, but to also say I understood the concerns she was bringing to me and I simply misunderstood some of the words that she used.

"So I've made my apology. I have come here, its been a chance to talk to Gillian about her family and about her relatives and about her own history and what she has done.

"Most of all, it is a chance for me to apologise and say sorry and to say that sometimes you do make mistakes and you use wrong words and once you've used that word, and you've made a mistake, you should withdraw it and say profound apologies, and that is what I have done."

A Labour press officer told reporters that Mrs Duffy would not make an immediate comment.

He told the waiting press pack: "She just wants you to get off her drive."

Brown had described Mrs Duffy as a "bigoted woman" in unguarded comments to an aide after she had tackled him on immigration, benefits, the national debt and tax policy.

Mr Brown was still wearing a radio microphone as he got into his car following a campaign visit in Rochdale.

"That was a disaster...should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that," he said.

"Just ridiculous," he added, before being asked what Mrs Duffy has said.

"Everything, she was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour."

He later used a radio interview to apologise publicly to the 66-year-old grandmother, saying: "I do apologise if I have said anything that has been hurtful and I will apologise to her personally."

He followed that up with a phone call saying sorry personally to Mrs Duffy.

But as senior Cabinet members including First Secretary Peter Mandelson and Health Secretary Andy Burnham took to the airwaves to defend the Prime Minister's character, Mr Brown decided he would break away from preparing for tomorrow's third televised leaders' debate to visit her in person.

He faced a barrage of questions as he arrived at the house in Rochdale, with one reporter shouting: "Has this ruined your campaign?"