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Minister urges Brown to say sorry for slump
Paul Waugh9 Mar 2009
Gordon Brown faced fresh pressure to apologise for the recession today after one of his own ministers said all British politicians should "say sorry" for their role in the crisis.
Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown, a former UN chief, said ministers "don't know how to say sorry".
The Prime Minister last week refused to express regret for his role in the run-up to the downturn, defiantly claiming that the fault lay with bankers, US sub-prime lending and rating agencies.
But Lord Malloch-Brown today told Radio 4's Start the Week that all politicians were culpable because they had signed up to the philosophy of "light-touch" regulation for banks.
He said: "I think it's perhaps incumbent on us all to say sorry."
When pressed on whether the Government should apologise, he said: "I have to say probably, and probably I'll regret saying it, I just cannot get over the fact that British politicians don't know how to say sorry."
Shadow chancellor George Osborne today seized on Lord Malloch-Brown's words.
He said: "Yet another senior minister has now said Gordon Brown should say sorry for the economic mistakes he made during the 10 years he was Chancellor. For Gordon Brown, sorry still seems to be the hardest word."
Reader views (4)
Message to our sub-Prime Minister - Don't apologise, just resign.
- David, Fleet UK, 18/03/2009 15:53
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Even if he did, it is too late and would mean nothing. So shut up and call an election.
- Vanessa, London, 11/03/2009 16:40
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It's not the saying sorry that a politician can't mutter, its the way the voter in the general election will make them politicians really feel it afterwards for ever !
- Joe, Swanley Kent, 09/03/2009 16:54
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The PM is hardly resposible for a worldwide economic credit-crunch and recession. Apologies are dor losers - Gordon is a winner
- Keith Price, Luton, England, 09/03/2009 16:12
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