Paloma Faith: 'I get mocked for my accent'

Paloma Faith has said that she gets mocked for her Cockney accent, with Londoners among the worst offenders.

Faith told the Evening Standard that she's often made to feel inadequate because of the way she speaks.

She declared: "I don't understand why the accent you speak in has to indicate what level of intellect you have.

"Sometimes you can feel a bit of a novelty but I know that most of the time people in the end after talking to me go, 'She's actually quite intelligent'. And I'm like, 'P*ss off!'"

The Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? singer attended Islington Green Comprehensive, which she described as "really, really rough". She later did an MA at Central St Martin's in London, where she said that the professor used to criticise her pronunciation.

"Funny isn't it?" said Faith. "I met an amazing cab driver recently and he said, 'You get these idiots who talk to you like you don't know anything'. I thought it was odd that he'd experienced it as well. It's just sad, but it's their own problem really."

A spokesman for Central St Martin's said: "We oppose any kind of discrimination."

Faith, who has previously described her style as "ridiculous", also spoke about how important image is to her.

"Celebrity culture is an aspirational culture regardless of how much you don't want it to be," she said. "It's a big responsibility and it's important to me to represent somebody who is at home with themselves and not necessarily conventional, in a sort of plasticky and hair-straightened way.

"I think image is of paramount importance. I think if I didn't have this image or have an emphasis on it I probably wouldn't be where I am. I believe in first impressions. We live in a society where everything's packaged."