It doesn't. It means that no matter what ever else you might call what Romney did while in the UK, the Brits still don't like it even now. Ergo it's equal to a gaffe. I'm sure that, after Sarah Palin, you're abundantly familiar with the saying about how you can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig. 
You think the BBC piece was tit-for-tat against Mitt? That would be journalistic integrity at its finest!