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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.

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Beverley Knight

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.

Beverley Knight

"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."

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