AA tell woman stranded on hard shoulder they can't prioritise her because of her gender

The AA have come under fire following a Twitter response to a user calling for help.

The group has been accused of putting women at risk for saying they "don't prioritise based on gender," after a woman's car broke down on Wednesday as it was going dark.

Dr Helen Mott, 52, says she was told by an AA call operator that "treat lone men and women exactly the same" because "that's equality".

The mum's tweet regarding the issue provoked anger from motorists and resulted in an apology from the AA.

Dr Mott, of Bristol, told The Sun: “The operator gave me an estimated time which was knocking on for a couple of hours.

“I asked the call handler why they treated men and women the same and didn’t prioritise lone women. They said there’s no difference and they just said that’s equality. They’ve been trained to say it".

Woman's safety campaigners have hit out at the stance shown by the company.

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, of Women’s Aid, said: “One woman is murdered by a man every three days in the UK. Priority must be given to ensuring women’s safety.”

An AA spokeswoman commented: “We accept that the wording of our initial response wasn’t great and have apologised. In fact, we prioritise anyone at risk but more often than not it will be lone women.”