BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN RICHARD Branson has accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of being less than upfront about a recent incident on a Virgin train.
Last week The Guardian published a video of Corbyn sitting on the floor of a train between London and Newcastle. In the video, Corbyn spoke to the camera and argued for the nationalisation of train services, partly because of overcrowding.
Corbyn had said:
This is a problem that many passengers face every day, commuters and long-distance travellers. Today this train is completely ram-packed. The staff are absolutely brilliant, working really hard to help everybody. 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?
Some Corbyn supporters had used the video as example of how they say Corbyn is more in touch with the lives of ordinary people than his Conservative opponents.
(Click here if you can’t watch the video)
Today though, Virgin Trains has released CCTV footage of Corbyn’s journey on the train.
They say it shows that “Corbyn and his team walked past empty, unreserved seats in coach” before they chose to sit down on the floor.
Virgin Trains are therefore disputing Corbyn’s claim that the train was “ram-packed”.
“The same footage then shows 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,” the company said in a statement.
As well as releasing the statement on its website, Virgin’s owner Richard Branson also tweeted the statement saying that Corbyn had walked by the empty seats.
Despite the video, some people have been disputing Virgin’s interpretation of what happened. Many have pointed to the fact that in the picture tweeted by Branson the seats he is walking past are reserved with red tickets on top of them.
Some passengers have also said that the Labour leader was forced to sit on the floor at the beginning of the journey.
Guardian journalist Peter Walker has also said that other passengers are supporting Corbyn’s story.
The video of Corbyn was taken on 11 August as Corbyn was going to Gateshead for a hustings debate with Owen Smith MP, the man challenging him for the leadership of the UK Labour Party.
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