The Essex commuter town home to Olly Murs people struggle to pronounce - including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Matt Lee

22 May 2024 at 8:42 am·2-min read

Essex is a hugely diverse county, possibly one of the most diverse counties in England. Whether it's the picturesque seaside towns, modern town and city centres, or rural villages, there is so much history scattered across Essex.

The county has a key avenue to the capital thanks to existing infrastructure as well as natural routes like the River Thames. It means that the region of Essex was invaded a lot.

It's not uncommon therefore for people outside of Essex to inadvertently mispronounce areas given the influence that the Romans, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons have had on the county. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, unfortunately, added himself to that list of people by struggling to correctly pronounce Witham.

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Despite Witham being one of Essex's largest towns and home to many celebrities, including singer Olly Murs, it's easy to slip up when pronouncing it. People often slip up on the 'th' sound, expecting it to be a soft 'th' like in 'bath'. But in a rare case, it's actually a hard 't'. So it's pronounced 'Witt-ham'.

Mr Sunak's mishap came in Prime Minister's Questions on May 22 when he was responding to a question from Sir John Whittingdale, the MP for Maldon, about St Peter's Hospital. Sir Whittingdale said his residents had been promised a new hospital "for over 20 years" but existing proposals would see the closure of the current site without a replacement.

"It leaves my constituents and those of Ms Priti Patel [MP for Witham] having to travel up to 30 miles for some treatments," he told the Prime Minister.

Responding, Mr Sunak said: "I know that he [Sir Whittingdale] and the Right Honourable Friend for Witham met both the Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care and the Minister for Social Care recently to discuss this.

"I understand the ICB have extended their consultation to be extended for three weeks to ensure that more consideration can be given and voices can be heard, but I will ensure that the relevant ministers keep my Right Hon Friend updated on the progress of this."

Witham has been a Conservative constituency in Essex since it was formed from several others in 2010. The current occupant, former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel, achieved her largest majority of 24,082 in 2019 when more than 32,000 people backed her. Mr Sunak and Ms Patel have been colleagues together in the Cabinet for a number of years.

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