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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday plunged into crisis his campaign to win the general election on May 6

Brown, whose Labor party is trailing third in many polls, met the pensioner Gillian Duffy as he campaigned in a northern town. With a pack of journalists around them, Duffy questioned Brown about his policies and issues she felt strongly about.

After identifying herself as a Labor supporter who was ashamed of the party, she tackled Brown on one of the most popular issues in the election campaign, immigration.

"You can’t say anything about the immigrants ... but there’s all these Eastern Europeans coming in, where are they flocking from?" she asked.

Brown replied calmly, "A million people have come from Europe, but a million British people have gone into Europe."

He handled the other questions well, and seemed pleased with the encounter, and even put his arm around Duffy.

However, once Brown had returned to the safety of his car, he turned to aides and said, "That was a disaster. You should never have put me with that woman," forgetting he was wearing a microphone for TV.

"She’s just a sort of bigoted woman," he added.

Brown’s comments were still being broadcast live on TV channels by the microphone.

Labor officials tried to swiftly limit the damage. Lord Peter Mandelson, seen as one of the architects behind the electoral success of former Prime Minister Tony Blair in three successive elections, said he had spoken to Brown after the incident.

"There’s no justification for it. Politicians are human. Sometimes you say things you simply do not mean. The moment you say it, you regret it, that’s what all of us do. He doesn’t believe this of Mrs Duffy, he doesn’t believe this either in public or in private," Mandelson said.

The recording of what he said was later played to Brown as he gave an interview to a BBC radio program. A photographer captured a weary and unhappy prime minister with his head in his hands as he listened to his words.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet