JEREMY Corbyn has denied the insinuation that he gave a misleading account of not being able to find a seat on a “completely ram-packed” train to bolster his argument to renationalise Britain’s railways.
Last week, a video was published showing the Labour leader apparently being forced to sit on the floor as he travelled from London to Newcastle for a leadership hustings with his challenger Owen Smith.
But Virgin Trains hit back, releasing its own CCTV footage of the journey, which seemed to show how there were empty, unreserved seats available.
Billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who co-owns Virgin Trains with Stagecoach, was quick to post a link to the CCTV images on Twitter, where the spat was quickly dubbed #traingate.
It was on August 11 during the three-hour journey to Newcastle when Mr Corbyn was pictured reading a newspaper sitting on the carriage floor.
"This is a problem that many passengers face every day on the trains, commuters and long-distance travellers,” declared the party leader.
“Today, this train is completely ram-packed. The staff on the train are absolutely brilliant, working really hard to help everybody.”
He added: “The reality is there are not enough trains, we need more of them and they’re also incredibly expensive. Isn’t that a good case for public ownership?”
The footage was posted on the day the UK Government controversially announced regulated rail fares would rise by 1.9 per cent in January.
The Islington MP – who on Thursday is in Glasgow for another hustings event - was subsequently praised for sticking to his principles after it was reported he had refused the offer of a first class ticket and decided, instead, to sit on the floor.
However, Virgin Trains released CCTV images, which appeared to show the party leader and his team walking past empty, unreserved seats before the filming began.
The train operator's footage also showed Mr Corbyn returning to coach H, sitting down in an empty seat - more than two hours before reaching his destination – with the help of the onboard crew; the journey normally takes around three hours.
"We have to take issue with the idea that Mr Corbyn wasn't able to be seated on the service as this clearly wasn't the case,” declared a Virgin Trains spokesman.
"We'd encourage Jeremy to book ahead next time he travels with us - both to reserve a seat and to ensure he gets our lowest fares - and we look forward to welcoming him on board again."
But the Labour leader was sticking to his account with a spokesman explaining: “When Jeremy boarded the train he was unable to find unreserved seats, so he sat with other passengers in the corridor who were also unable to find a seat.
"Later in the journey, seats became available after a family were upgraded to first class and Jeremy and the team he was travelling with were offered the seats by a very helpful member of staff.”
He added: "Passengers across Britain will have been in similar situations on overcrowded, expensive trains. That is why our policy to bring the trains back into public ownership, as part of a plan to rebuild and transform Britain, is so popular with passengers and rail workers.”
To emphasise Mr Corbyn’s account, his office released pictures of other passengers sitting on the carriage floor.
The row sparked a flurry of witticisms on social media.
Chris Bryant, former shadow cabinet minister and a critic of Mr Corbyn, quipped: "The wheels just came off Jeremy's campaign and he's about to be shunted into a siding."
Jack Grant joked: "And they said Corbyn couldn't win seats."
Twitter user Chris Lowe said: "Billionaire with rail monopoly attacks socialist's attempt to nationalise his racket."
Meantime, Mr Smith made his own witty remark, tweeting: "My campaign remains on track. Proud to be genuinely standing up for ordinary people."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel