Soldier's mother attacks Brown letter
Updated on 09 November 2009
The mother of Guardsman Jamie Janes, who died in Afghanistan, says Gordon Brown was disrespectful towards her son's memory by misspelling his name in a letter of condolence.
The prime minister also angered veterans by failing to bow his head as he laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on Remembrance Sunday, the Sun newspaper claimed today.
Jacqui Janes received a hand-written note from Brown after her son Jamie, 20, of the 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards, was killed by an explosion on 5 October. The letter began: "Dear Mrs James".
Mrs Janes told the newspaper: "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."
Downing Street has said that the prime minister has personally contacted Mrs Janes to assure her that he did not intend any offence when he spelt the name wrongly.
A spokesman for the prime minister defended his actions saying that Brown spends a great deal of time writing to bereaved families and would never knowingly misspell anyone's name.
"The prime minister takes a great deal of time writing letters of condolences," he said.
"The reason he personally writes to every family is to acknowledge the debt of gratitude owed by the country to those who have died to protect the people of Britain. He would never knowingly misspell anyone's name."
