BBC's Nick Robinson excels at mispronunciation

The Today presenter accidentally mangled Philip Hammond’s commonly used nickname “spreadsheet” as he discussed the fallout from the financial statement with journalists.

Mr Robinson quickly corrected himself but within minutes social media users suggested it had been a “Freudian slip”.

Robinson asked one of the guests: “Do you agree that this is basically Spreads*** Phil, Spreadsheet Phil, I should say, as he is known in the Treasury, basically holding his nose and saying there will be a row but it will pass?”

One Twitter user said the gaffe had “brightened my morning considerably” while another described it as “glorious”.

It is not the first potty-mouthed slip-up by presenters on the flagship Radio 4 programme.

On Robinson’s first day on the show, the pips were crashed when Jim Naughtie whispered “s***”.

But the most embarrassing clanger came in 2010 when listeners spluttered into their cornflakes as the former presenter accidentally replaced the first letter of cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt’s surname with a ‘’C’’.

The on-air stumble sent the presenter into a coughing fit, and attracted a slew of emails from listeners who were either amused or angry.

Naughtie proceeded to interview Mr Hunt without incident, but later issued several apologies for his ‘’Spoonerism’’ - a reference to Dr William Spooner who was notorious for inappropriately switching letters between words.

Responding to tweets about the blunder, Robinson tweeted: “I’m very very worried about your hearing. I clearly said SpreadSHEET Phil ...didn’t I?”