Written Correction
House of Commons · Written Corrections · 1 Sep 2026 · 4 speeches · Official Report
Tuesday 1 September 2026
Regional Accents and Social Mobility The following extract is from the debate on Regional Accents and Social Mobility on 15 July 2026.
Professor Rob Drummond says that people across England have expressed positive views about regional accents, but still rated northern-accented speakers as less intelligent and less “correct” when hearing identical speech. Earlier research found that lower-working-class speakers were judged to be 14% less intelligent, 4% less friendly and 5% less trustworthy than upper-middle-class speakers. There is huge prejudice about people with accents like mine. [ Official Report, 15 July 2026; Vol. 789, c. 367WH.] Written correction submitted by the hon. Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery):
Dr Amanda Cole and Professor Rob Drummond say that people across England have expressed positive views about regional accents, but still rated northern-accented speakers as less intelligent and less “correct” when hearing identical speech. Earlier research found that lower-working-class speakers were judged to be 14% less intelligent, 4% less friendly and 5% less trustworthy than upper-middle-class speakers. There is huge prejudice about people with accents like mine.