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Dr Alex Baratta has called for “accentism” to be made a crime.

The linguist said people with an accent often felt like “fakes” as they tried to “posh up” when talking.

He wants job applications and other official forms to state an accent alongside other identities such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, age and race, so any discrimination can be exposed.

He called discrimination against accents like 47-year-old John Bishop’s Scouse the “last taboo”.

Dr Baratta, from Manchester University, said: “We should acknowledge that any form of workplace discrimination, to include accentism, should not be tolerated.

“My point is illustrated by an Ofsted inspector who told a Cumbrian teacher working in a Berkshire school to sound ‘more southern’.”