Steph McGovern, 37, joined her BBC Breakfast co-stars Louise Minchin, 50, and Charlie Stayt, 57, on the morning sofa to discuss Team UK at WorldSkills Kazan 2019 held in Russia this week. The championship brings together the brightest and best students and apprentices from across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to compete in the prestigious “Skills Olympics”. The BBC journalist from Middlesborough took to the micro-blogging site and wrote in view of her 367,000 followers: “Loved talking about our Team UK success at World Skills in Russia this morning on @BBCBreakfast— young people we need to be incredibly proud of. The best in the world for their trades.” After the episode of the BBC One Show, one viewer questioned her pronunciation of a certain word.
The fan tweeted the expectant mum, informing her she sounded like a “southerner” when saying the word “plasterer”.
The person in question said: “Liked the feature, good to see young folk doing so well, why have you started to pronounce plasterer like a southerner?”
However, she stated it is actually the way she has pronounced the word all of her life.
Steph replied: “It’s a Middlesbrough accent quirk. I say head-mar-ster too. I have said it like that all my life. Weird isn’t it?”
It comes after she spoke about the WorldSkills championship on the show.
The business correspondent explained: “These guys have gone through intensive training for years. They’ve been in regional competitions, national competitions to be part of Team UK.”
Students and apprentices have won a host of gold, silver and bronze medals in areas including engineering, beauty therapy and technology.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Steph has been called out by fans over her pronunciation of particular words on the show.
Earlier this month, after a recent episode of the BBC One show, another view pointed out Steph’s use of the word “burglary”.
She admitted it was the one word she always tends to “trip over” when saying it aloud on the morning show.
The fan wrote to Steph: “Please it’s ‘burglary’ not ‘burgal-ry’ thanks!”
Steph admitted she has difficulties with the word and replied: “I always trip over that word.”
“You and most of your colleagues and other newsreaders! Thanks for your reply and good luck with your pregnancy,” the viewer responded.
A few days later, the same viewer congratulated Steph on pronouncing the word how she had suggested.
They said: “Yay you got it right this morning.”
The pregnant star acknowledged: “It was a tense read!”
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays on BBC One at 6am.