Ahead of yesterday’s London Marathon, Scope reversed its decision to disinvite a choir to its cheering spot after criticism.
On Thursday last week, the disability charity withdrew its invitation for the Singing Striders to perform voluntarily as part of its “cheer squad” at the event due to concerns over the way founder Janet Murray had publicly expressed her gender-critical views.
But after criticism on social media and coverage of the disinvitation in publications including the Daily Telegraph, Scope restored its invitation to Murray’s choir the day before the run.
On Saturday evening, the charity’s chief executive John McLachlan said in a statement: “On reflection, we would like to restore our invitation to the choir to attend the marathon tomorrow and perform for runners if they choose to do so.
“We accept that the choir as a group does not promote a specific viewpoint and that the performance in itself doesn’t undermine our values.
“This decision has been made without prejudice and reflects our appreciation of the right of individuals to hold protected beliefs under the Equality Act 2010.
“Gender-critical views are highly polarising and we are sensitive to the fact that for some of our valued members, supporters and colleagues, gender-critical beliefs may be deeply upsetting and alienating.
“We are here to support anyone who has been affected and we will provide additional support through our supporter care team. We are looking forward to celebrating our runners and supporters at the London Marathon.”
Murray rejected the restored invitation but sang with her choir separately at the marathon yesterday.
In a social media post, Murray said the “damage had already been done” by the charity’s initial invitation withdrawal and “damaging public statements about me”.
£43M raised on JustGiving
Meanwhile, JustGiving has reported that more than £43m has been raised by London Marathon 2026 runners so far on its fundraising platform.
This is up from the £41m raised on the platform at a similar time after last year’s event, while the average amount raised is 14% higher per participant at over £2,700 this year.
Over 14,000 runners raised money through JustGiving for the marathon this year, benefitting more than 2,600 charities.
Pascale Harvie, president of JustGiving, said: “We are blown away by the remarkable efforts from everyone that took part in this year’s London Marathon.
“Congratulations to everyone who took part and on behalf of all our charity partners, thank you.”
The final fundraising figure across all platforms for last year’s London Marathon was £87.3m, beating all previous records.
