British news outlets had reported overnight that Cable was planning to use the phrase “erotic spasm” in a speech critical of the pro-Brexit forces in Westminster at the annual Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton. The phrase caught the attention of many journalists because of its sexual undertones.

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But Cable appeared to misspeak when he reached that key phrase on Tuesday, instead saying something that sounded a lot like “exotic spresm” — though “spresm” is not a word in the English language.

The slip-up immediately prompted jokes on Twitter, drawing ridicule from such high-profile media personalities as former English soccer player Gary Lineker.

Tim Farron, a Liberal Democrat member of Parliament and Cable’s predecessor as leader of the party, also poked fun at the mistake in his tweet.

For the Liberal Democrats, the widespread attention drawn by two words in a speech that lasted more than 40 minutes is certainly regrettable — especially as the party, long seen as a centrist third choice to the traditionally dominant left- and right-wing parties, has struggled to adapt to Britain’s increasingly polarized political world.

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Cable’s speech had sought to portray his party as the only real anti-Brexit choice for voters, and he called on his fellow Liberal Democrats to “extend the hand of friendship” to disillusioned members of the governing Conservative Party and the main opposition Labour Party, both of which officially support Brexit despite internal divisions.

“The two big parties have changed from broad churches into intolerant cults,” Cable said. “And those who question the faith are unwelcome.”

The Liberal Democrats performed well in local elections this year, but the party has struggled to regain the momentum it had ahead of the 2010 national election, in which it won almost one-quarter of the vote and entered into a coalition government with the Conservatives. (Most recent polls estimate the Liberal Democrats' nationwide support at less than 10 percent.)

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The party did little to influence the direction of the coalition government between 2010 and 2015, and its popularity suffered deeply as a result of austerity policies put in place at the time. Cable, who held a senior position in government as business secretary, went on to lose his seat in Parliament in the 2015 election. He won it back last year.

Speaking to the Observer newspaper on Saturday, Cable said his party would not join a coalition government with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives or Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour in the immediate future. “They’re both pretty appalling in different ways,” Cable said.

Britain is due to leave the E.U. in March, but the prime minister has struggled to find support for a new free-trade agreement with the bloc within her own party — let along among E.U. officials — prompting widespread concern that the country could end up with a “no-deal Brexit” that would result in economic turmoil for Britain as trade ground to a halt.