diff --git a/docs/source/release/v5.1.0/ui.rst b/docs/source/release/v5.1.0/ui.rst
index f54c0b9bf1b1fcfc515e9208e63ff8a7b360b5a6..70d20e76c38dfdb4c2c7f27a39a72da78115b811 100644
--- a/docs/source/release/v5.1.0/ui.rst
+++ b/docs/source/release/v5.1.0/ui.rst
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ See :doc:`mantidplot`.
 
 MantidWorkbench
 ---------------
+- Fixed new tab names not incrementing correctly on KDE display environments (i.e. KUbuntu).
 
 See :doc:`mantidworkbench`.
 
diff --git a/qt/python/mantidqt/widgets/codeeditor/multifileinterpreter.py b/qt/python/mantidqt/widgets/codeeditor/multifileinterpreter.py
index 3def7f5f9db1b9594cad38d07b5942a111b6530e..b3188d316469410523145a6d4e9ae85fa4c35d15 100644
--- a/qt/python/mantidqt/widgets/codeeditor/multifileinterpreter.py
+++ b/qt/python/mantidqt/widgets/codeeditor/multifileinterpreter.py
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ class MultiPythonFileInterpreter(QWidget):
         if filename is None:
             title = NEW_TAB_TITLE
             i = 1
-            while title in self.tab_titles:
+            while title in self.stripped_tab_titles:
                 title = "{} ({})".format(NEW_TAB_TITLE, i)
                 i += 1
             return title, title
@@ -77,8 +77,13 @@ class MultiPythonFileInterpreter(QWidget):
             return osp.basename(filename), filename
 
     @property
-    def tab_titles(self):
-        return [self._tabs.tabText(i).rstrip('*') for i in range(self.editor_count)]
+    def stripped_tab_titles(self):
+        tab_text = [self._tabs.tabText(i) for i in range(self.editor_count)]
+        tab_text = [txt.rstrip('*') for txt in tab_text]
+        # Some DEs (such as KDE) will automatically assign keyboard shortcuts using the Qt & annotation
+        # see Qt Docs - qtabwidget#addTab
+        tab_text = [txt.replace('&', '') for txt in tab_text]
+        return tab_text
 
     def closeEvent(self, event):
         self.deleteLater()