CHARLOTTE Church has said she is "really sorry" for the behaviour of some anti-austerity protesters after journalists were spat at as they attended the Conservative Party conference.
The singer condemned activists for abusing people in the streets of Manchester and is writing an open letter of apology.
MPs, party members, journalists, lobbyists and staff at the conference centre were called "scum" as they ran the gauntlet of demonstrators outside the venue on the opening day of the event.
Church told reporters: "I would never have called anybody scum. I think that it is fundamentally unhelpful in the issues we're trying to talk about and name-calling is never a good thing."
She said just a "tiny" number of the protesters had engaged in such behaviour at the demonstration.
"Whoever the person who got spat in the face, I'm sure it was a horrible experience, and I plan to write an open letter on behalf of the majority of people who were protesting that day just to say we are really sorry, this isn't what it's about, just to represent the rest of the people who were there who would never act like that."
The celebrity activist also accused Michael Gove of "projecting" his own issues on to her after the Justice Secretary attacked her for hitting the anti-austerity campaign circuit.
Mr Gove used a speech to conference to hit out at Church and Russell Brand, labelling them "comfortable millionaires who flaunt those opinions, appear on those shows and lay down the law" and claiming they fail to "understand the people who make Britain great".
Church hit back, telling reporters: "In terms of what Michael Gove said yesterday, I think that he is projecting on to me, actually, what is his own situation. He's also a comfortable millionaire who is going round spouting his opinion left, right and centre.
"Yes, he is a democratically elected MP but I think his idea that I don't know about real people who make this country great is totally ridiculous. I can't imagine that he is in such constant contact with such normal people as I am."
She added: "Whilst I am very flattered that I made it on to his radar, I do feel like he is projecting somewhat some of his own issues on to me."
Church accused the Conservatives of waging "class war" through the party's austerity measures and claimed tax avoidance was a form of "economic terrorism".
She said: "I think it is absolutely obscene, especially when they have enough budget to cut things like inheritance tax for the top 4% richest people in this country yet they can cut child tax credits.
"I think this is an ideological choice. It isn't absolutely necessary to have things like austerity and it's class war."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was surrounded by protesters as he walked to the conference venue yesterday, said he did not believe Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was instigating a "new politics".
He told a fringe event: "When I look at the way demonstrators are behaving outside this convention centre, this is a return to the old politics, to the 1980s, sadly to the politics that I thought we'd left behind. So I don't buy that argument.
"I do buy the argument there's an anti-politics mood in this country, in Europe, across the world you can see it with Syriza in Greece on the left or Donald Trump in America on the right, and ... there's a challenge for us as a Conservative Party because not only are we in Government, we are also traditionally seen as the party of the establishment.
"So it's a real challenge, we have to absolutely redouble our efforts to make sure the British electorate feel we are connected to them and their everyday concerns."
A man has been charged with assault after allegedly spitting at a male journalist outside the Radisson Hotel in Manchester city centre.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "Russell Woods, 30, of no fixed abode, was charged with Section 39 assault.
"He has been bailed to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2015.
"At around 2.25pm on Sunday 4 October 2015, a 30-year-old man was standing outside the Radisson Hotel on Peter Street when he was approached by another man who spat in his face."
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