Today presenter in live 4-letter Jeremy Hunt gaffe

It won't be the first time Jeremy Hunt has been called a certain expletive that is one letter away from his surname – but it is the first time he's been called it on live radio by a BBC presenter.

James Naughtie was the unlucky perpetrator of a gaffe that, while embarrassing, is perhaps forgivable on a Monday morning given the proximity of Hunt's surname to said four-letter insult.

The presenter was trailing an interview about broadband with the culture secretary on this morning's Today programme on Radio 4, when he said, with some gusto: "First up after the news I'm going to be talking to Jeremy Cunt."

Then, not to be outdone, Andrew Marr repeated Naughtie's faux pas later in the morning on Start the Week, during a discussion on Freudian slips.

The Today show's Twitter feed acknowledged Naughtie's howler, and the corporation has apologised for both uses of the rude word - which were doubly unfortunate given the persistent mutterings of BBC anti-Tory bias and Hunt's potential involvement in decisions about future licence fee settlements. ·