A PUB chain has apologised after a woman in a wheelchair was turned away with the words: “We don’t do disableds.”
Andy Smart visited the pub in London on Tuesday with his sister, Ros, who suffers from multiple sclerosis.
The comedian was outraged that staff at The Plough in Bloomsbury said they do not serve disabled people.
Andy tweeted the owners of the pub Greene King: “This afternoon, my sister Ros, who has MS, was turned away from the The Plough, a pub on Museum Street, London WC1.
“The phrase they used was ‘We don’t do disableds’. The manager then told her they don’t serve disabled people. Please do not use this Pub!@greeneking”
The tweet has since gone viral with nearly 600 people commenting on the issue with nearly 4,000 retweets.
Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh was among those to retweet the post.
Welsh wrote: “Boycott this pub and the b******s who own it. Sorry to hear that Ros was treated so badly by those ignorant people Andy.”
@LizDawes, a disability rights lawyer said: “They said WHAT? Andy I’m a lawyer and run a disability rights related charity. If your sister doesn’t get this dealt with to her satisfaction make sure she gets in touch.”
@Its_Only_Mike wrote: “This is dreadful – hope Greene King take suitable action and make proper amends to your sister after this humiliating experience. And I hope she went to a bloody lovely pub afterwards.”
@lord_corbyn added: “That’s illegal.”
@jhbrines commented: “Omg – I’m fecking raging. My hubby has MS and if someone said that to him I would cause it problems. Big time. Everyone with any decency should boycott from now on. Feckers.”
The MS Society responded: “We are shocked and saddened to hear that this happened to her. We can understand this will be upsetting. If she needs information and support on legal and equality rights our Helpline would welcome a call.”
The Plough posted an apology online to their Facebook page later the same day saying: “We are deeply concerned and worried for the thoughts shared about an inexcusable experience a group of patrons had today at our establishment.
“We would like to share our deepest concerns and apologies for the parties involved… refusing to serve anyone based on a disability is out of the question.
“I have discussed the incident with the team members involved thoroughly and believe there was a miscommunication which we truly apologies for.”
Greene King have confirmed they have investigated the incident and have apologised to the customer. They also said they will be explaining to the customer the actions they plan on taking.
A spokesman for Greene King said: “Everyone is welcome at Greene King and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination.
“We at Greene King and the team at The Plough are extremely saddened by what has happened and have apologised for the upset this has caused. We are also following up with the customer to explain the action we are taking.
“We have investigated the incident, including reviewing the CCTV footage of the visit and speaking to the team members on duty yesterday, as well as the pub manager, who was not working at the time.
“We always try our best to accommodate all customer needs and encourage our teams to go above and beyond to make their pubs as accessible as possible for everyone.”
