The Sun has published an apology to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown over its claims that he had accused the paper of blagging details about his son’s medical records – following the tabloids story that his son had cystic fibrosis.
The front-page story ran in 2006 and initiated a breakdown in relations between the politician and the paper but it was a follow up column published by Trevor Kavanagh which prompted the tabloid to issue the apology - after Brown went to the Press Complaints Commission.
In their page two apology The Sun wrote: “In Trevor Kavanagh's column of 12 November, it was stated that Gordon Brown accused the Sun of blagging his son's medical records.
"In fact, Mr Brown has never made such an accusation, in parliament or otherwise. We were wrong to use this erroneous allegation as a basis to make comments about his character and integrity and to suggest that Mr Brown was 'not telling the full story'. We withdraw these criticisms and apologise to Mr Brown."
Brown has long been quizzical as to how The Sun came to obtain the information as it was not in the public arena but has always denied blagging, claiming that a source had voluntarily approached them to highlight the plight of those suffering from the disease.