GORDON Brown is in the fight of his life, pleading with the nation to give him another chance, asking for our trust in his leadership under the everyday pressures of running the country.

Yesterday, when he was inadvertently recorded calling a woman questioner in Rochdale “a bigot”, Mr Brown came across as angry, intolerant, and – frankly – a bit of a bully.

It is one thing to be described as a bully by third parties, leaking secrets from the corridors of power. It is quite another when we hear it for ourselves in an accidental break from the obsessive stage-management of the election trail.

Of course, we all say things in private – and sometimes in public – which we regret. We also appreciate that Mr Brown is under intense media pressure, as are the other party leaders.

But in Mr Brown’s position, it is the kind of gaffe he simply could not afford.

Yes, he apologised. He even turned up at Gillian Duffy’s home.

But that simply underlines the magnitude of the error in Labour eyes.

And the explanation which accompanied the apology – that he was simply frustrated at not being able to give Mrs Duffy a full enough answer – simply doesn’t wash.

He had actually given a perfectly reasonable response to her perfectly reasonable points, arguing that as many Britons had gone to work in Europe as Europeans had come to work in Britain.

Mr Brown can be grateful in many ways that his howler is so swiftly followed by tonight’s third and final leaders’ debate on television.

He needs the performance of his life to reassert his credibility.