Virgin Trains East Coast apologise for '˜sexist' tweet

Virgin Trains have apologised ‘unreservedly’ for a ‘sexist’ tweet that was sent from their official Virgin Trains East Coast account.

Responding to a tweet from Emily Lucinda Cole that a male train manager patronised her by referring to her as ‘honey’ after she had complained, the company responded on Twitter saying: “Sorry for the mess up Emily, would you prefer “pet” or “love” next time? ^MS”

However, following immediate backlash from their tweeted reply, the company deleted the offending tweet.

Moments later they tweeted: “We apologise unreservedly for this tweet and any offence that it may have caused. To avoid causing more offence we have deleted the original post.”

The initial reply has been jumped on by a number of campaign groups, with Emily Lucinda Cole, who initially tweeted commenting on the reply saying: "Wonderful to see that @virgin_trainsEC take complaints of rude and misogynistic behaviour seriously. Stunned. @EverydaySexism @VirginTrains”

Users on social media have react furiously to the reply from Virgin.

One user wrote: “Just deleting it and carrying on Won’t solve the underlying @everydaysexism problem where this type of thing is thought of as acceptable”

Another wrote: “This is not okay. Awful. Well done Emily for publicising. Things like this may seem trivial to some but it’s the everyday sexism which allows things like the gender pay gap, etc to continue.”