Tanni-Grey Thompson: Paralympic legend faced online backlash after having to ‘crawl’ off train
Former British Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said she received abuse after complaining about being forced to “crawl off” a train after arriving at London’s King’s Cross on Monday night.
The 11-time wheelchair racing gold medallist missed her train and arrived at the station from Leeds just after 10pm, starting her journey to Paris for the Paralympic Games, which begin in the French capital on Wednesday.
After waiting for about 16 minutes for help with leaving the train, she said she “decided to crawl off”.
In a series of posts on social media platform X, she complained about the lack of assistance, saying: “@LNER [London North Eastern Railway] who do I need to call to get off this train!!! It got to KGX 10 mins ago!!!!!”
Baroness Thompson told Sky News on Wednesday the “backlash” she has received since included emails saying “‘how dare I be out on a bank holiday; I should be at home. I shouldn’t dare to travel without anyone else. And how dare I miss a train’ so it’s interesting to see some of the attitudes towards disabled people that are still out there.”
On Tuesday she responded on X, saying: “To the ableist people who have said I should stay at home, not work, not expect to travel on a bank holiday, not travel on my own…. Ummm not happening.”
Along with the abuse, she said she has received plenty of support, as “lots of people have emailed me to say they’ve had problems across the whole train network”.
She added: “The complaints they’re making are not being responded to. They’re being fobbed off. LNER are normally a lot better than this. I think that’s why it’s been shocking for a lot of people. But there is a problem with the whole network.”
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Tanni Grey-Thompson racing in 2004. File pic: PA
The experience left her angry, she said, adding: “I’ve been put on a train. So, in my mind, there’s a contract between me and the system that somebody knew that I was on a train.
“The booking system… every train company has a different way of doing it. There’s a passenger booking app which is just bolted on the front of a system that doesn’t work terribly well, and we have a legal right to turn up and go.
“We don’t have to book assistance. I can just turn up at the train station. I don’t have any right to be on a train that’s leaving in the next two minutes. But I do have a right to not book. Every disabled person does.
“I sometimes think it’s much harder when you haven’t booked, when you have to turn up at a train station and, depending on which company and which station, you almost have to beg to get on a train. ‘I haven’t booked; please, can I get on the train?’ That’s more humiliating than what I went through.
“But I’m lucky I can still get off the train. There are thousands of disabled people who can’t do that and would have been stuck.
“I was thinking about pulling the emergency cord. I couldn’t actually reach it. And that would have delayed the train going north. So, there’s all these things going through your head.”
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The chief executive of LNER has personally apologised to her, she said, and by the time she arrived at Eurostar, “they might have seen some of the media coverage and couldn’t do enough for me”.
She added: “But the public transport system, you know, just isn’t working for lots of people. And certainly, the train network isn’t working for disabled people.”
LNER managing director David Horne said “something has clearly gone wrong” and added the company will investigate how the Paralympic legend was treated.
An LNER spokesperson said: “We are sorry to understand there has been an issue at London King’s Cross station on Monday evening.
“We are in the process of investigating this and are in contact with the customer directly.”
Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.
It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.
However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.
Captain Virgil van Dijk (centre) celebrates. Pic: Reuters
Salah on his knees in celebration after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott (below) and Jarell Quansah celebrate after full-time. Pic: PA
Slot cheers after the full-time whistle. Pic: AP
In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.
The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.
But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.
“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”
Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas poses with a Premier League trophy cut out. Pic: Reuters
Manager Arne Slot and his team after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.
He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”
Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.
Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.
Mohamed Salah takes a selfie with fans after scouring the fourth Liverpool goal. Pic: AP
Fans at Anfield during the game. Pic: AP
Fans in the stands at Anfield before full-time. Pic: Reuters
Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.
It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.
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Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
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