Gordon Brown said on Tuesday he had apologised to the grieving mother of a British soldier killed in Afghanistan, who had taken offence at a sloppily written condolence note from the Prime Minister.
Jacqui Janes had called the handwritten note, which appeared to mis-spell her son’s surname, a “hastily scrawled insult.”
In his regular press conference, Gordon Brown expressed regret and blamed the incident on his poor handwriting.
“I apologised to Jacqui Janes yesterday for any mistakes that had been made,” he said.
“The last thing on my mind was to cause any offence to (her) and I think people know me well enough to know that it would never be my intention … to cause any grief to a grieving mother.
“I understand very well the sadness that she feels, and the way that she has expressed her grief is something that I can also clearly understand.”
Gordon Brown’s apology was made in a private phone call to Janes which she had taped and which was reproduced by The Sun newspaper, a critic of government policy on Afghanistan.
Downing Street said Brown was unaware his conversation was being recorded.
