Virgin releases footage to challenge Corbyn’s ‘ram-packed’ train claim

Virgin Trains has disputed Jeremy Corbyn’s filmed account of having to sit on the floor of a “ram-packed” London-to-Newcastle service, releasing CCTV images that it said showed the Labour leader walking past empty, unreserved seats.

In a statement on Tuesday supported by Richard Branson, Virgin Trains said it wanted to “clarify” Mr Corbyn’s account of the journey on August 11th.

The train operator published a picture that it said appeared to show the Labour leader sitting in a seat at 11.46am, shortly after a freelance film-maker travelling with his team had finished shooting.

It said the footage showed “Mr Corbyn returning to coach H and taking a seat there, with the help of the onboard crew, around 45 minutes into the journey and over two hours before the train reached Newcastle. Mr Corbyn’s team carried out their filming around 30 minutes into the journey.”

Virgin said earlier CCTV footage from the train , taken before the film was shot at 11.10am, “shows Mr Corbyn and his team walked past empty, unreserved seats in coach H before walking through the rest of the train to the far end, where his team sat on the floor and started filming”.

The company statement was quickly followed by a tweet from Mr Branson, the head of the Virgin Group, who said he had walked past available seats, showing a different image of the train timestamped at 11.11am.

In the brief film of Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader lamented the lack of available seats on the train, saying his only option would have been to upgrade to first class.

“This is a problem that many passengers face every day; commuters and long-distance travellers,” he said.

“Today this train is completely ram-packed. The staff are absolutely brilliant, working really hard to help everybody.”

The Virgin statement said that, as well as unreserved seats, Mr Corbyn walked past seats that were reserved but not taken, meaning they were available for other passengers to use. Mr Branson used the image in his tweet.

Corbyn’s response

A Labour source said Mr Corbyn’s recollection of why the Labour leader walked past seemingly empty seats, as shown in one CCTV still, was that there were no vacant pairs of seats, and he wanted to sit next to his wife, Laura, for the journey.

The source said when Virgin staff spotted Mr Corbyn sitting in a vestibule they offered him a complimentary upgrade to first class, which he refused.

The staff then upgraded a family to first class so Mr Corbyn and his team could sit in their seats.

Other passengers sitting in corridors were also found seats during this period, as Virgin staff moved some people to booked seats which had not been occupied.

The video was shot by Yannis Mendez, who has been following Mr Corbyn and volunteers during his leadership campaign.

Mr Corbyn was travelling to a debate with Owen Smith in the Labour leadership hustings in Gateshead , and was filmed at about 11.30am.

The party leader said the apparent lack of seats emphasised the need for the railways to be returned to public ownership, one of his flagship transport policies.

“The reality is there are not enough trains, we need more of them – and they’re also incredibly expensive,” he said.

Mr Mendez disputed Virgin’s account of the trip, sending the Guardian footage in which someone standing next to Mr Corbyn says, in seeming reference to a lack of seats: “Hopefully at York some people will get off.”

He also sent footage of the Labour leader walking through a packed carriage.

Mr Mendez said that the seemingly empty seats shown on an image released by Virgin Trains, timestamped 11.10am, had bags or coats placed on them by passengers.

The filmmaker said there were a number of other passengers sitting on the floor during the initial part of the trip.

“We filmed Jeremy Corbyn at 11.30am, sat at the front of the train. There were many other people sat on the floor during that journey.

“After the video was shot we managed to get a seat at around 11.40am, because Virgin staff moved people around the train, but other people were unable to get a seat.”

Virgin’s version was contradicted by a woman who said she had also sat on the floor of the train next to Mr Corbyn, having sent a social media photo of herself and her daughter with the Labour leader.

Ellen – who asked to not be fully named – told the Guardian that Mr Corbyn had seemingly gone through the entire standard-class section of the train but had not been able to find a seat.

The 26-year-old, who was with her one-year-old daughter and son, aged six, said she had similarly been unable to find seats.

“He’s not lying,” she said. “When I saw him he was in coach A, right at the front. He hadn’t managed to find a seat in the whole of the train. I was sat on the floor, there was no space for me to get a seat. There were people in every space between every carriage. It was totally overcrowded. They were full of bags and full of people.”

Like Mr Corbyn, the woman was seated about 45 minutes into the trip, after Virgin staff moved people into reserved seats that were unoccupied.

A Virgin Trains spokeswoman said the company would look into whether it could provide CCTV footage of vestibule areas to show whether or not other passengers were sitting in them.

Mr Corbyn’s leadership rival, Owen Smith, was quick to respond on Twitter:Corbyn’s rival Owen Smith was quick to respond on Twitter: “My campaign remains on track. Proud to be genuinely standing up for ordinary people.”

Guardian