London: A British woman called a bigot by Prime Minister Gordon Brown snubbed his request to shake hands with her in front of the cameras, her nephew said.
Brown was visiting Rochdale when Gillian Duffy called out to him. As part of the new "real voters" strategy, she was ushered by an aide to speak directly to the Prime Minister.
After their discussion, Brown turned to a trusted aide and said: "That was a disaster... She was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour."
Little did Brown realise that he was still wearing a microphone, which recorded everything.
Scandalised, Brown went to meet Duffy and apologised to her. Then, she was asked to step outside and shake the Prime Minister`s hand after a 40-minute chat.
But the pensioner was so traumatised by the insult that she snubbed his pleas to shake hands for the cameras, Daily Express reported on Friday.
"My auntie was asked to go outside and stand on the drive with him. I did not think it was a good idea. We just thought she’d had enough.”
"She has accepted his apology, but she is still upset. She is not a bigot, she is a fantastic lady and she was just a bit disappointed that someone could say that to her," Gillian`s nephew Peter Duffy was quoted as saying.
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