Lily Allen claimed a black cab driver refused to let her in his taxi yesterday, telling the singer: “Find an immigrant to drive you, you stupid tart”. The pop star has suffered a fierce backlash online after apologising on behalf of Britain to a young refugee in Calais.
And the storm continued yesterday when she claimed the current attitudes towards refugees were like Nazi Germany.
Yesterday, the Brent resident claimed a black cab refused to pick her up when she was out with her children because of the controversy.
She tweeted: “Just tried to get in a black cab with my kids.
“The driver looked at me and said: ‘Find an immigrant to drive you you stupid tart’.”
She went on: “Having lived a life of privilege, that interaction has given me a tiny glimpse of what it feels like to be discriminated against.
Lily Allen’s representatives declined to comment.
A spokesman for Transport for London, which regulates the capital’s black cabs, said the organisation was looking into the allegations.
But taxi drivers hit back at Allen on social media yesterday afternoon, accusing her of inventing the whole story.
Twitter user taxidrivergaz wrote: “Reg and plate No.
Or it didn’t happen.”
The singer hit back: “I had both my hands full with children, couldn’t get to my phone fast enough.”
And when Matt White accused her of “definitely making it up”, she replied: “Victim shaming.
Cool.”
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), said: “The LTDA represents 11,000 black cab drivers – about half of those in London.
“Whilst it is not clear whether the driver in question was an LTDA member, we take any allegation such as this extremely seriously and would condemn any cabbie who treats anyone with such disrespect and uses abusive language in this way.
“The driver in question has put their licence in jeopardy with this appalling behaviour, and we would urge TfL as the regulator for our industry to undertake an investigation.”
The 31-year-old has caused a storm in the weeks since her tearful visit to the Calais ‘jungle’ camp.
Speaking to a teenager at the camp on Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC show she said: “We’ve bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now put you in danger of risking your life to get into our country.
“I apologise on behalf of my country.
I’m sorry for what we have put you through.”
Many social media users were unimpressed with the star’s antics.
One tweeted: “On behalf of England, we apologise for Lily Allen.”