PM Brown apologises for mistake-filled letter to bereaved mother

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised after writing a mistake-filled letter to the mother of a young soldier killed last month in Afghanistan.

Despite the apology, Jacqui Janes has called the Prime Minister disrespectful. Gordon Brown today telephoned Mrs Janes to speak to her personally and apologise for the blunders in his hand-written letter. He said that every time he had to write to bereaved families it was a "moment of personal sadness" for him. Traditionally Prime Ministers write to the families of the fallen and Mr Brown was writing to Mrs Janes after her Grenadier Guardsman son Jamie was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on October 5 this year. He was 20-years-old and died two weeks into his second tour in the country. According to The Sun newspaper, Mr Brown began the letter with an error by writing "Dear Mrs James" rather than "Janes". Speaking to The Sun newspaper 47-year-old Mrs Janes said, "He couldn't even be bothered to get our family name right. That made me so angry. Then I saw he had scribbled out a mistake in Jamie's name. The very least I would expect from Gordon Brown is to get his name right. The letter was scrawled so quickly I could hardly even read it and some of the words were half-finished. It's just disrespectful." PM Brown also apparently made several other spelling mistakes including writing 'greatst for greatest', 'condolencs for condolences', 'you instead of your' and 'colleagus for colleagues'. Continuing her interview with The Sun, Mrs Janes from East Sussex said, "In the days after Jamie's death I got letters from Prince Philip, Buckingham Palace, the Defence Secretary and his regiment. They were all written from the heart and made me feel Jamie's death was important to them. Then I got Gordon Brown's. I only got through the first four lines before I threw it across the room in disgust. I re-read it later. He said, 'I know words can offer little comfort'. When the words are written in such a hurry the letter is littered with more than 20 mistakes, they offer NO comfort. It was an insult to Jamie and all the good men and women who have died out there. How low a priority was my son that he could send me that disgraceful, hastily-scrawled insult of a letter? He finished by asking if there was any way he could help. One thing he can do is never, ever, send a letter out like that to another dead soldier's family. Type it or get someone to check it. And get the name right." The Prime Minister has spoken of how he takes is responsibility to the deceased and bereaved seriously. He said, "Every time I write a letter to mothers and fathers and partners who have suffered bereavement to express my sincere condolences, it is a moment of personal sadness to me.And I am in awe of the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces. I send a handwritten letter to every family and I often write to more than one member of the family. I have telephoned Jacqui Janes to apologise for any unintended mistake in the letter. To all other families whom I have written to, I can only apologise if my handwriting is difficult to read. I have at all times acted in good faith seeking to do the right thing. I do not think anyone will believe that I write letters with any intent to cause offence." Coming to the defence of the Prime Minister, the First Secretary of State Peter Mandelson said that anyone who knew the PM knew that he poor handwriting. He said, "It is unthinkable that he would mean any disrespect to any of the families he has written to." Gordon Brown has previously spoken of how he lost an eye as a schoolboy when he was injured in a rugby accident. It appears to be a bad weekend for the Prime Minister who also angered veterans this Remembrance Sunday when he laid a wreath at the Cenotaph but failed to bow his head.