'A disgrace' Team GB chief on former Paralympian's train ordeal

The chef de mission of ParalympicsGB said yesterday it was a "disgrace" that Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson had to drag herself off a train at King's Cross station in London because there was no help for wheelchair users, and warned it was "the lived experience of disabled people on a daily basis".

- Paul MacInnes

Speaking in Paris before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games last night, Penny Briscoe said the British team were "raring to go". However, she argued that the experience endured by Grey-Thompson, a winner of 11 Paralympic gold medals who was on her way to the Games, showed the necessity of ParalympicsGB using its platform to push for social change.

"Clearly, it's an absolute disgrace," Briscoe said. "It's the lived experience of disabled people on a daily basis, though it just doesn't get reported.