Gordon Gaff Might Well Have Blown It For Brown

Apart from close neighbours, no-one would have heard about Gillian Duffy until yesterday, when an exchange with views saw Labour’s General Election campaign blow up in spectacular fashion.  Who would have thought that going off to the shop to buy a loaf of bread would cause such a political storm.

Gordon Brown was campaigning in Rochdale yesterday, desperate to turn around Labour’s fortunes in the polls, which have taken a significant hit from a campaign that has lacked inspiration throughout.  He and Duffy ended up in conversation on the street for around five minutes, through the advice of Brown’s PA, who discovered that Duffy was a long-standing supporter of the Labour party.  It seemed fairly pleasant, with Gordon defending the party’s policies and Duffy, pointing out their failings, including the hotly-debated subject of Eastern European immigrants.  They parted on good terms, but as Gordon Brown disappeared into the back of his car, he had forgot to turn off a microphone, contributed by Sky News for the campaign trail.  The next discussion was a blunder of the first magnitude.

Brown: “That was a disaster!” “Well, they should never have put me with that woman, whose idea was that?”

PA: “I don’t know, I didn’t see.”

Brown: “It was Sue I think, it’s just ridiculous.”

PA: “What did she say?

Brown: “EVERYTHING, SHE’S JUST SOME SORT OF BIGOTED WOMAN, THAT SAID SHE USED TO BE LABOUR.  I MEAN IT’S JUST RIDICULOUS”

He isn’t the first to have been caught out by the microphone.  In 1993, after a TV interview with ITN, John Major called his Cabinet colleagues “b######s”, promising to “crucify them,” whilst the likes of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Prince Charles have also been embarrassed by the power of the clip-on mic.  With tonight’s leadership debate on the BBC focused on the economy, this was the worst possible time for Brown to produce such a horrendous moment of judgement.  His next appointment, on the Jeremy Vine Show for BBC Radio 2 showed his complete guilt.

Rather than continue fully with the trail in Manchester, Brown returned to the scene of his crime, to apologise to Gillian Duffy for his ‘slip of the tongue.’  He came out infront of the cameras, beaming with smiles, saying all was forgiven and forgotten.  However, the latest polls may pull out a different scenario.  The world’s media were obsessed yesterday with another twist that has turned this General Election campaign on its head.  With seven days to go, Gordon Brown has dug himself into a major hole and it might be too late to dig him out of it.  Yesterday, these private recriminations expose the Prime Minister to public humiliation.  He has a massive fight on his hands now, to restore the reputation of himself and his beleaguered party.  A resounding victory in tonight’s debate is the only ways forward.