Brown caught calling voter ‘bigoted’

April 28, 2010 06:54 pm | Updated November 28, 2021 08:42 pm IST - LONDON

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, wearing a Sky News microphone, speaks to local resident Gillian Duffy, 65, while campaigning in Rochdale, England on Wednesday. Brown was caught on microphone describing a voter he had just spoken to — apparently Duffy — as a "bigoted woman".

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, wearing a Sky News microphone, speaks to local resident Gillian Duffy, 65, while campaigning in Rochdale, England on Wednesday. Brown was caught on microphone describing a voter he had just spoken to — apparently Duffy — as a "bigoted woman".

A British voter has demanded an apology from Prime Minister Gordon Brown after he was caught on an open microphone calling her “a bigoted woman.”

Mr. Brown was heard criticising Gillian Duffy after he left a campaign stop in Rochdale in northern England, where he had spoken with her about pension rates and immigration.

The British leader said he was unaware that a television microphone was still live. Asked by an aide about his conversation, Mr. Brown said “she was just a bigoted woman.” He suggested Ms. Duffy had questioned the number of eastern European migrants in Britain.

Ms. Duffy then asked for an apology from Mr. Brown and said she would no longer vote for his Labour Party in Britain’s May 6 election.

Mr. Brown later apologised “profusely.”

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