The Daily Mail has accused Virgin Trains of censorship after the rail operator stopped selling the newspaper.
Virgin announced in an internal note that it had ceased stocking the paper in November because of matters raised by staff.
The note said workers expressed “considerable concern” about the Mail’s editorial position on issues such as immigration, LGBT rights and unemployment.
But the newspaper said the train firm told it at the time the reason Virgin would no longer be stocking the Mail was because it was aiming to “save space”.
The Mail claimed Virgin was acting for political reasons after the paper criticised a decision to use taxpayer funds to “bail out” Virgin’s East Coast mainline franchise.
A spokesman for the Daily Mail said: “It is disgraceful that, at a time of massive customer dissatisfaction over ever-increasing rail fares, and after the taxpayer was forced to bail out Virgin’s East Coast mainline franchise, a decision strongly criticised by the Mail, that Virgin Trains should now announce that for political reasons it is censoring the choice of newspapers it offers to passengers.
“It is equally rich that Virgin chose to launch this attack on free speech in the Aslef trade union journal.
“For the record Virgin used to sell only 70 Daily Mails a day.
“They informed us last November that to save space, they were restricting sales to just three newspapers: the Mirror, FT and Times.
“They gave no other reason, but it may be no coincidence that all those titles, like Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson, are pro-Remain.”
Image: A number of brands have severed their ties with the Daily Mail
A spokesman for Virgin Trains said: “We regularly review the products we have on sale for customers in the shop on board our West Coast trains and after listening to feedback from our people, we decided in November 2017 that we would no longer stock copies of the Daily Mail.
“When we stocked the Daily Mail on board, we sold one copy for every four trains.”
An internal note to staff within Virgin Trains’ West Coast business said: “Different viewpoints are often valuable, and it’s certainly true that we choose to take our news from different sources depending on our view of the world.
“Thousands of people choose to read The Daily Mail every day.
“But, from Sunday 26 November, they will no longer be reading it courtesy of VT.
“There’s been considerable concern raised by colleagues about The Daily Mail’s editorial position on issues such as immigration, LGBT rights and unemployment.
“After due consideration, we’ve decided that this particular paper is not at all compatible with the VT brand and our beliefs.
“We will continue to offer The Times to customers, but we won’t be stocking the Daily Mail for sale or as a giveaway.
“This won’t suit all of our customers or all of our people, it’s certain to draw some criticism.
“But we’ve listened to many colleagues over the last few months, and we feel that this is the right move to take.”
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Stationery firm Paperchase were criticised after they apologised for advertising in the Daily Mail last November following action by campaigners.
Lego and The Body Shop have also previously announced that they will no longer run promotions in the paper.
Source: Sky