Gordon Brown sends error-filled condolence letter to dead soldier's mum

London, Nov 9 : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown left the grieving mother of a dead British soldier in disgust by sending her an error-filled letter of condolence.

The hand-written note to heartbroken Jacqui Janes about her son Jamie, 20, who was killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan on October 5.

The letter begun with ''Dear Mrs. James'' and even had Jamie''s name spelled incorrectly. It was then corrected by scrawling over the last letter.

"He couldn''t even be bothered to get our family name right. That made me so angry," the Sun quoted Janes as saying.

"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."

Brown had also committed four other spelling mistakes: Greatst for greatest, condolencs for condolences, you instead of your, and colleagus for colleagues.

He also wrote the letter "i" incorrectly 18 times - mostly by leaving the dots off them but once by using two in "security".

And he ended with a repetition - writing "my sincere condolences" and then signing off "Yours sincerely".

Mum-of-six Jacqui went on: "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," said Janes.

"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," she added.

A spokesperson for Mr Brown said last night: "The PM takes a great deal of time writing letters of condolence.

"The reason he personally writes to every family is to acknowledge the debt of gratitude owed by the country to those who have died. He would never knowingly misspell anyone''s name," the spokesperson added.

--ANI