Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been caught on tape insulting a woman with whom he had just met, labeling her a “bigot” for her questions about crime and immigration. His campaign is now in full damage control mode, with the PM himself returning to the woman’s house to clean up this mess.

Actually, it gets worse. As Ben Smith notes, Brown actually managed to blame the incident on the staffer who allowed the woman to approach him. And the fact he was rushing to another interview:

Of course I apologise if I’ve said anything that’s been offensive and I would never put myself in a position where I would want to say anything like that about a woman I’d met.

I blame myself for what is done, but you’ve got to remember that this was me being helpful to the broadcasters, with my microphone on, rushing into the car because I had to get to another appointment and they have chosen to play my private conversation. These things can happen, I apologise profusely to the lady concerned.

None of which explains away his view that the woman is “bigoted”. That just explains how he got caught. Brown is basically apologizing for letting his personal views get revealed for the world to hear — not the fact he holds those views to begin with. He’s not admitting he was wrong about her being bigoted, just that he shouldn’t have let other people know.

To make matters worse, Brown didn’t just insult an elderly woman. He insulted his own supporter. In fact, she considers herself a lifelong Labour supporter. So there’s that.