Beverley Knight backs Ryanair racial abuse petition
Beverley Knight has backed a petition calling on Ryanair to apologise and compensate a woman who was racially abused on a flight.
The singer signed and tweeted out the petition - which has so far attracted 277,600 signatures - in support of Delsie Gale, who was on a Ryanair flight to London when she was verbally abused.
The Wolverhampton-born stage star said she would never use the budget airline again.
The petition, started by anti-racism campaigner Zita Holbourne, reads: "Delsie Gayle, an elderly disabled black woman of the Windrush generation, was subjected to horrific racism by a passenger who hurled racist abuse and insults at her whilst on a Ryanair flight to London.
"Ryanair failed to remove the man from the flight or to support Mrs Gayle. Instead she was made to move seats whilst the man was given a row to himself.
"I’m calling on Ryanair to apologise both directly and publicly and compensate Mrs Gayle.
"They should provide assurance that their crew will protect their passengers better - this could mean a review of policies or training.
"Ryanair failed Mrs Gayle and in doing so failed all of their passengers. They had a duty of care towards her - airlines can remove passengers from flights if they pose a threat or are disruptive to other passengers - but they didn’t."
A video showing the racial abuse that Mrs Gayle suffered has been viewed more than 1,300,000 times on YouTube after it was posted by a passenger on the flight.
Posting on Twitter, Ryanair said: "We are aware of this video and have reported this matter to Essex Police."