Photo: © 2010 AFP/AAP

Ahead of next week's election and with the media in tow, the British Prime Minister was campaigning with voters in northern England.

While the cameras were rolling, Brown was seemingly happy to speak with 66-year-old Gillian Duffy about a number of issues, including immigration.

But he's true thoughts came to light when he hopped into his awaiting car, still wearing his wireless Sky News microphone.

"That was a disaster … Should have never put me with that woman," he vented.

"She was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour."

After the comments were made public, Brown apologised to Duffy on the radio, over the phone and then in person.

"I misunderstood what she said and she's accepted that there was a misunderstanding and she has accepted my apology," he said after their face-to-face meeting.