Prime Minister Tony Blair apologised on Thursday to an 82-year-old man who was physically ejected from the Labour Party conference for heckling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw over the Iraq war.
Walter Wolfgang shouted "liar" and "nonsense" at Straw as he made his speech about Iraq on Wednesday. Stewards threw out both Wolfgang and a delegate who had complained about the older man's treatment.
The pictures of the incident were splashed across the front pages of several national newspapers, with the Daily Mail describing it as an example of "Freedom of speech in Blair's Britain".
Blair apologised during interviews on several television and radio broadcasts on Thursday morning. "People are perfectly entitled to freedom of speech in our country and we should celebrate that fact and I'm really sorry about what happened to Walter and I've apologised to him," Blair told BBC television.
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