Gordon Brown has been heard describing an elderly voter as a "bigot" in a conversation caught by a microphone as he left a campaign visit to Manchester. Political Editor Gary Gibbon says it was a Jekyll and Hyde moment.
The prime minister's comments were recorded as he left Rochdale, where he had a discussion with life-long Labour voter Gillian Duffy.
The conversation was picked up by a microphone that had been placed on the prime minister's shirt to record his conversations during the campaigning visit
After getting into his car, Brown was heard to say: "You should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? Sue's I think.
"Everything she said - she's just a bigoted woman."
He was also heard to call the encounter a "disaster" and "ridiculous".
It is understood that "Sue" is Brown's assistant Sue Nye.
Mr Brown had told Mrs Duffy, while talking to her in the street: "It has been very good to meet you - and you are wearing the right colour today. How are your grandchildren?
Watch the full exchange with Gillian Duffy
"A good family. Good to see you."
Mrs Duffy had confronted Brown on the subject of the deficit, tuition fees, benefits and immigration.
She told him: "My family have voted Labour all their lives - my father even sung Red Flag, but now I am ashamed of saying I'm Labour."
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