David Cameron: Give me the tools to change Britain
Joe Murphy, Political EditorLondon Evening Standard.,,29.04.10
David Cameron appealed to voters to “give me the tools” today as Gordon Brown struggled to recover from the crisis brought on by his Bigot-gate gaffe.
“Give me the tools, with a majority government, with a fresh team, new leadership to take the country in a different direction, and to confront the problems we have,” he urged. But with seven days to the election, it emerged that Bank of England governor Mervyn King has privately warned that the spending cuts needed will be so severe that the winning party may find itself cast out of power for a generation.
The Standard was with Mr Cameron at the exact moment he was handed a text revealing that the Prime Minister had called a lifelong Labour voter “just a bigoted woman”. He simply raised his eyebrows and carried on reading.
Mr Brown today faced a welter of recriminations from his own team — and signs that his victim, Rochdale widow Gillian Duffy, 66, is set to sell her story to a newspaper. She was driven from her home in a BMW, clutching a bouquet. Home Secretary Alan Johnson admitted the party's campaign had suffered a “terrible blow”. Another senior minister called it “ghastly” and another said it “could be catastrophic” for the core Labour vote.
Mr Brown visited a welding factory in the Midlands today — an ironic choice amid claims that his bandwagon was falling apart. He was chaperoned by wife Sarah and campaign strategist Lord Mandelson and was on his best behaviour, chatting and smiling with workers at the plant.
But when he told one worker her firm was doing well, she responded: “Our company's doing well everywhere but I think it's in spite of you.”
The issue dogged his morning. Trying to move the debate on, he declared: “Yesterday is yesterday. Today I want to talk about the future of the economy. I think I've apologised and I've said it was the wrong word to use.”
But he was forced to reassure workers at a Q&A session that he was listening on immigration — one of the concerns Mrs Duffy raised with him.
“I understand the worries people have about immigration,” he said. “I understand the concerns about what is happening to people's neighbourhoods.” Mr Johnson defended Mr Brown's “human” mistake” and continued the party's “hair shirt strategy” of showing maximum repentance. He went on: “I was mortified, not so much for Gordon — he's big enough and strong enough to look after himself — but for Mrs Duffy.”
“I think when you saw her face and the hurt that caused her, there was this enormous feeling of sympathy. Labour supporters, not least the Labour candidate in Rochdale, would have been horrified by that.
“This is a terrible blow. It's damaging. Mrs Duffy seems to represent the best of the pre-baby boom generation.”
Labour's hope was that voters will begin to see the furore as a media concoction if it carries on, especially if Mrs Duffy sells her story to an anti-Labour newspaper such as The Sun.
One minister said: “It was ghastly but no voter has brought it up with me yet and I was at a meeting of 200 people. The media has gone over the top and it could turn around.” The minister cited the case of Janie Janes, the mother of a dead soldier sent a badly written letter of condolence, where initial public hostility to Mr Brown turned to sympathy.
But another minister pointed out that with postal votes issued in the past three days, huge numbers of elderly voters are currently weighing up their choices and may sympathise with Mrs Duffy. “In that respect, the impact on our pensioner core vote could be catastrophic,” he said.
“For me, and many others, one of the most horrifying things was seeing the way Gordon smiled after meeting her. He didn't look like a man who was showing remorse.”
Chancellor Alistair Darling called Mr Brown's remarks “deeply regrettable”. He added: “Gordon shouldn't have said it. He's deeply remorseful.”
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