Analysists' View - Brown apologies for calling voter "bigot"

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised Wednesday after being caught on tape describing a voter as "a bigoted woman."

She had confronted him on immigration and the economy in an election campaign walkabout in northern England.

Following are analysts' views on the rare gaffe in a tightly scripted and choreographed campaign for all political parties ahead of polling day on May 6.

ANDREW HAWKINS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF POLLSTER COMRES

"I think it will have a real impact. It's vital for any politician to demonstrate that they are the same person off camera as they are on.

"For Gordon Brown almost his last remaining card was 'trust me, I'm an honest man and I do my best for the country'. And this pulls the rug from under that.

"Just when you think things couldn't get any worse for Labour, suddenly they just did."

IVOR GABER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING, LONDON'S CITY UNIVERSITY.

"Public opinion is in a very strange state at the moment and it's not predictable.

"Clearly in the short term this looks pretty bad. But Brown is developing a certain Teflon characteristic."

"People think they know Brown and are perhaps not surprised by this."

ANDREW RUSSELL, SENIOR LECTURER IN POLITICS, MANCHESTER UNVIERSITY

"When the history of the campaign is written, I don't think it's the moment that Labour lost, but it could be seen later as the moment that doubts crystallised about Labour.

"A politician in a stronger position could recover from this, what we know is that Gordon Brown is not in that position.

"I don't think it's a good idea to call voters bigots."

JUSTIN FISHER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, BRUNEL UNIVERSITY

"It clearly won't play well in the news today and it will dominate the news when Labour wanted to be speaking about something else."

(Reporting by Tim Castle; editing by Keith Weir)