CCTV shows Jeremy Corbyn walking past empty seats, Virgin Trains says.
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He said the Virgin footage of Mr Corbyn sitting in a seat was from after the Labour leader had filmed his video message on the floor, once the packed train had emptied out.
Responding to Virgin Trains’ claims that seats were available Team Corbyn released a video of the Labour leader looking for a seat on the train and “testimonies from other passengers”.
“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”.
He told the audience: “Jeremy, the biggest thing he said recently that I disagreed with was “yes, we’ve got to get some of the people who contemplated voting Tory in the past to vote Labour”, rubbish – we’ve got to get two million people who actively voted Tory 12 months ago to vote Labour in 106 seats”.
Footage from the train operator shows Mr Corbyn sitting down in an empty seat in coach H of the train at 11.43am.
Seated; Virgin Trains’ CCTV footage shows Corbyn did have a seat.
“The reality is there are not enough trains, we need more of them – and they’re also incredibly expensive, isn’t this a case for public ownership?”
“Jeremy has highlighted this daily travel blight which means people sit on floors on trains every day because of overcrowding or because empty seats are designated as unavailable for use”.
They’re pointing out that most of the seats in the picture look to be reserved, so he maybe couldn’t have sat in them anyway…
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.
The Labour Party has been contacted for a comment.
In his film, shown on The Guardian, Corbyn said the train was “completely ram-packed”, but that staff were working hard to help passengers.
Following the scandal, Corbyn’s contender for the labour leadership, Owen Smith wrote on twitter his campaign remained “on track” and that he was “proud to be genuinely standing up for ordinary people”.
Mr Corbyn did not directly claim he couldn’t get a seat – but the context makes it abundantly clear. There were no seats he was able to find and staff couldn’t find any either, ” the source said.
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The Labour leadership challenger said failing to take Brexit back to the people amounted to writing the government “a blank cheque” on a talks with the EU. It was full and he gave his seat up so a woman could sit down.
