Written Correction

Ian Lavery Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Written Corrections

Tuesday 1 September 2026

[Ian Lavery]

Regional Accents and Social Mobility

The following extract is from the debate on Regional Accents and Social Mobility on 15 July 2026.

[Ian Lavery]

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):

[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.