BBC Radio 4's Nick Robinson apologises for on-air slip-up after mispronouncing Jeremy Hunt’s name as rude word

The slip occurred while Robinson was speaking to employment minister Alison McGovern on Friday morning.

The incident happened as Robinson discussed welfare cuts, saying, “When the Tories announced £12 billion in welfare cuts, and at the time the Labour Party condemned that, they said that Rishi Sunak and Jeremy C*** had no idea where they’d get the money, you’re going to do exactly the same aren’t you in this Budget?”

Roughly 10 minutes later, Robinson addressed the mistake on air, acknowledging, “The eagle-eared amongst you have just pointed out that I repeated what was known as the Jim Naughtie error in my last interview in which I mispronounced the name of the former Conservative chancellor, the current shadow chancellor, so can I just apologise to Jeremy Hunt. Again, I’m so sorry.”

This is not the first time a Today presenter has mistakenly mispronounced Mr Hunt’s surname. Previous incidents include Justin Webb making the error when Hunt was health secretary, and James Naughtie’s infamous slip when Hunt was serving as culture secretary. Additionally, BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire made the same mistake in June 2019 while discussing Hunt in his role as foreign secretary.

Following Derbyshire’s blunder in 2019, Hunt addressed the issue, urging people to “grow up” about his name’s rhyming expletive. In a podcast interview with The Telegraph, he commented, “I’m used to it. I had this when I was at school. Personally, I think people should just grow up and get over the fact that my last name rhymes with a rather unpleasant word.”