Gordon's gaffe the latest in a long line of political blunders

Until today, Gordon Brown's biggest gaffe as Prime Minister was arguably when he misspelled the family name of a British soldier killed in Afghanistan in a letter to the serviceman's grieving mother.

He called the mother of Grenadier Guardsman Jamie Janes "Mrs James" and the handwritten letter was littered with what appeared to be spelling mistakes. This may have been a result of his notoriously bad handwriting and poor eyesight. He also scribbled a correction to Jamie's name after appearing to write "James".

Mr Brown is not alone in being caught unaware that he is being recorded. Tony Blair was embarrassed when George Bush greeted him with the remark "Yo, Blair" at the G8 summit in Russia in 2006 as it appeared to confirm perceptions that Mr Blair was President Bush's poodle.

The President also thanked Mr Blair for giving him a sweater as a present and referred to plans to pressurise Syria to "get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit" in terms of attacks in the Middle East.

John Major was caught off camera calling three Cabinet ministers "bastards" at the height of internal Tory divisions over Europe in 1993. He complained to the then ITN political editor Michael Brunson about the "poison" he faced from rivals over the Maastricht treaty.

"I could bring in other people," the former prime minister said. "But where do you think most of this poison is coming from? From the dispossessed and the never-possessed. You can think of ex-ministers who are going around causing all sorts of trouble. We don't want another three more of the bastards out there."

Perhaps the most celebrated of all such gaffes was President Reagan's in 1984, when he said: "My fellow Americans. I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."

And James Callaghan, when he was prime minister, went into a radio studio in Leeds and, in a conversation with staff there, said: "What a nuisance and a waste of time it is to have to go into the House of Commons twice a week to answer questions."

The Prince of Wales has also fallen for "live microphone syndrome".

He made some disobliging remarks about Nicholas Witchell, the BBC's royal correspondent, which were intended for the ears only of his two sons William and Harry, but which gained worldwide coverage.

He said: "Bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is."

On-the-record interviews have also caused embarrassment. Last year Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State and wife of former president Bill, revealed in Vogue magazine that she had a crush on Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

She said she liked his accent and added: "Well, if you saw him it would be a BIG crush. I mean, he is so vibrant, vital, attractive, smart. He's really a good guy. And he's so young!"