Grow up and say my name properly, says Hunt

JEREMY HUNT has told broadcasters to “grow up” and stop “mistakenly” mispronouncing his surname.

Mr Hunt’s surname seems to have been regularly replaced with a highly offensive expletive by television and radio presenters, forcing the journalists responsible to issue hurried apologies.

Sky News and BBC presenters, as well as Channel 4 and Channel 5 hosts, have all been heard making the gaffe.

On Tuesday Victoria Derbyshire , the BBC host, used the c-word live on air during her show, saying: “You say that the man you’re backing, Jeremy ----.”

She spluttered: “I’ve never said that before in my life – it’s usually men who say that, so I really want to apologise. I’m sorry.”

Speaking to Chopper’s Brexit Podcast, Mr Hunt said broadcasters should “grow up” and stop it.

He said: “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.”

Mr Hunt, who came second in the first round of leadership voting yesterday, also hit back at fellow contender Sajid Javid, who said that the Tories had to move away from the “same old insiders with the same old school ties”.

The comments were seen as a dig at the favourite, Boris Johnson, who went to Eton College, and Mr Hunt, who attended Charterhouse.

Mr Hunt said: “I’m never going to get into the business of criticising Boris Johnson for going to a posher public school than me; I think that would be the politics of envy. British people aren’t interested in your background; they’re interested in what you want to do, whether you can change the country for the better. We have to stop talking about backgrounds and get on to who’s got the best plan for the country … I don’t have an old school tie.” Mr Hunt used his appearance on the podcast to pitch directly to MPS, and the party’s grassroots, who will vote on the final two candidates.

He said: “Don’t lose hope… if we dig in and say the terms on which we want to leave the EU, we can achieve that. And I am the person to do that.”

Also on the podcast, Dominic Raab said he would be the prime minister the EU feared most because he was the anti-establishment candidate.

The former Brexit secretary, who came fourth in the first round of voting, appealed to Conservative MPS to put him into the final two candidates to face the membership next week.

Mr Raab, the MP for Esher and Walton since 2010, has alarmed Remainers by suggesting that Parliament could be suspended to allow the next prime minister to take the UK out of the EU without a vote of MPS by Oct 31.

He said: “I don’t think proroguing Parliament is very likely, but it’s about the signal we send.

“The reality is, of course, the Establishment, Whitehall, would rather not have someone who is absolutely crystal clear that they’ll get us out of the EU. We heard it from [Michel] Barnier and [Guy] Verhofstadt.

“So if you really want to get out of the EU, listen to the people who want to keep us in – and the person they fear most, I think, is me.”

Mr Raab said that one of his main priorities would be “housing, as well as overhauling stamp duty”, which he said has been blamed for preventing pensioners from moving out of their larger, family homes.