Robert Buckland MP has joined celebrities Sandi Toksvig and Stephen Fry in calling on parents to turn on subtitles to improve children’s literacy.

The pandemic has led to literacy levels for some children to regress, so the South Swindon MP teamed up with campaign group Turn On The Subtitles.

He said: “Significant research has shown that by simply turning on the subtitles for children’s TV, we can dramatically improve literacy. It’s such a beautifully simple, yet powerful idea.”

“Turn on the subtitles and improve children’s ability to read - a simple, free and extremely effective idea we can all get behind. I’m fully supportive of this in our constituency, let’s get the message out there.”

The campaign has received a lot of attention nationwide, with celebrity backers including Sir Lenny Henry, Phillip Schofield and Rachel Riley amongst those joining the call for more parents to embrace the idea.

Mr Buckland wrote to schools in his constituency about this. Visit turnonthesubtitles.org for more information and details on the research.