The incident occurred after Brown, encouraged by his advisors to interact with ordinary people more often before next week's parliamentary elections, went for a walkabout in the town of Rochdale , located near Manchester. There, he spoke with Gillian Duffy, aged 65, who challenged him on topics such as health and education, before asking about immigration: "All those Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" she asked him. Unbeknownst to him, however, the Sky News microphone attached to his lapel was still turned on and picked up the conversation that followed inside the vehicle: "That was a disaster ... they should never have put me with that woman," Brown said. "Whose idea was that? It’s just ridiculous." When an aide asked what Duffy had said, Brown responded: "Everything, she was just a bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour [...] I don't know why Sue [an aide] brought her up towards me." "[...] It's going to be tax, tax, tax for another twenty years to get out of this national debt, and he's calling me a bigot," later adding: "I want to know why - them [sic] comments I made there - why I was called a bigot." A spokesman for Brown said: "Mr Brown has apologised to Mrs Duffy personally by phone. He does not think that she is bigoted. He was letting off steam in the car after a difficult conversation. But this is exactly the sort of conversation that is important in an election campaign and which he will continue to have with voters." Andrew Russell, a politics lecturer for Manchester University , commented on the situation. "A politician in a stronger position could recover from this. What we know is that Gordon Brown is not in that position."
The incident occurred after Brown, encouraged by his advisors to interact with ordinary people more often before next week's parliamentary elections, went for a walkabout in the town of , located near Manchester. There, he spoke with Gillian Duffy, aged 65, who challenged him on topics such as health and education, before asking about immigration: "All those Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" she asked him. Unbeknownst to him, however, the microphone attached to his lapel was still turned on and picked up the conversation that followed inside the vehicle: "That was a disaster ... they should never have put me with that woman," Brown said. "Whose idea was that? It’s just ridiculous." When an aide asked what Duffy had said, Brown responded: "Everything, she was just a bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour [...] I don't know why Sue [an aide] brought her up towards me." "[...] It's going to be tax, tax, tax for another twenty years to get out of this national debt, and he's calling me a bigot," later adding: "I want to know why — them [sic] comments I made there — why I was called a bigot." A spokesman for Brown said: "Mr Brown has apologised to Mrs Duffy personally by phone. He does not think that she is bigoted. He was letting off steam in the car after a difficult conversation. But this is exactly the sort of conversation that is important in an election campaign and which he will continue to have with voters." Andrew Russell, a politics lecturer for , commented on the situation. "A politician in a stronger position could recover from this. What we know is that Gordon Brown is not in that position."
D
Rochdale
D
Sky News
R
-
—
R
-
—
D
Manchester University