Labour politician Chuka Umunna mispronounced the name of a west midlands town during a radio interview, confusing it with a US city.
The shadow business secretary made the gaffe during a radio interview while he was plugging Labour’s regional growth policies on BBC Hereford and Worcester.
But Mr Umunna managed to mangled the pronunciation of Worcester to make it sounds as if he was saying “Wichita”, a city in Kansas made famous by a Glen Campbell hit.
The Streatham MP said: “I doubt most people on the streets in Hereford and Wichita know what a local enterprise partnership is about but your local branch of the chambers of commerce or federation of small businesses, they know what that’s about.”
The mistake was soon picked up on by presenters and the song was played during a segment the next day mocking the politician.
Local Tory MP Robin Walker said it proved Mr Umunna, the MP for Streatham in London, was part of a "metropolitan" set which was out of touch with voters beyond the capital.
A spokesman for the MP said: “This was a mistake in one of many breakfast radio interviews Chuka has done this week promoting Labour's ambitious plans to decentralise power and spur better-balanced growth.
“The fact is that of course Chuka knows how to pronounce the name - he simply made a mistake in a live interview.
“Rather than engaging with Labour's plans to boost local growth and help small businesses, local Tories are instead focusing on a mistake in a radio interview."
Worcester, a key swing seat, was one of the groups defined as ‘Worcester Woman’ by Tony Blair as he secured a landslide win for Labour in 1997.
Labour leader Ed Miliband made a similar error when he was unable to name the Labour leader in Swindon during a radio interview in the Wiltshire town.
Prime Minister David Cameron recently denied Chelmsford was targeted for cuts, while he was on air in neighbouring Colchester.
