Alex Scott’s response to Sir Digby Jones’s accent snobbery is pure class

There isn’t much that’s less attractive than blatant classist snobbery, but that didn’t seem to stop ex-House of Lords member Sir Digby Jones.

As the rest of the nation gets stuck into the Olympics, the former Labour minister decided to offer elocution tips to one of the BBC’s top presenters of the Games.

Sir Jones, 65, who was educated at private Bromsgrove School, directed his own commentary at former Arsenal footballer Alex Scott MBE, 36, who has been leading much of the broadcaster’s coverage of the excitement over in Tokyo.

In a Twitter tirade on Friday, he said that she “spoils a good presentational job on the BBC Olympics Team with her very noticeable inability to pronounce her ‘g’s at the end of a word”.

He ended his rant: “English language….. Help!”

As fellow users of the platform flocked to condemn his unsolicited linguistic assessment and offer their support to Scott, she proved that she can happily hold her own.

The ex national footballer wrote in response:

She then penned a heartwarming message to “young kids who may not have a certain kind of privilege in life”:

Her thread concluded with the defiant assertion that remarks like Jones’s “just give me the energy to keep going”:

Later she proved she had no intention on changing her pronunciation for anyone, speaking live on air with a proud smile:

The 36-year-old, who was recently announced as the new host of the BBC’s ‘Football Focus’, was backed by fellow sports stars, politicians and other big names:

Following the backlash, Sir Digby doubled down on his comments, telling LBC: “I do wish people could criticise in a free democracy and understand that I have a point of view that doesn’t mean I should be cancelled.”

Speaking with host Andrew Castle on Sunday, the 65-year-old argued: “This has got nothing to do with her upbringing. This is not about accents.

“It is about the fact that she is wrong. You do not pronounce the English language ending in a ‘g’ without the ‘g’.”

He continued: “I don’t want her as a role model – and she is one, and a good one – to influence [people] to think that it is very fashionable to go around dropping your ‘gs’.”

The former MP, who left the House of Lords last year, insisted he hadn’t targeted Scott specifically, pointing out that he had also criticised Sky News journalist Beth Rigby and Home Secretary Priti Patel for their pronunciation.

Asked if he thought his comments would be met with such an intense level of opprobrium, Sir Digby said: ‘Never in my wildest dreams,” but, he added: “I don’t regret it for one second because I have a point - and I think I’m right. But I didn’t for a minute think it would cause this sort of storm, I really didn’t.”