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.
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Earlier this month Mr Corbyn released a video of himself sitting on the floor of a Virgin East Coast train arguing that “this is a problem that many passengers face every day”.
‘CCTV footage shows two images of Mr Corbyn returning to Coach H and sitting down at 11.43am, shortly after being filmed while sat on the floor and more than 2hrs before his final destination, Newcastle.’
Of these, 29 per cent said “I don’t like Jeremy Corbyn as leader” – the largest single reason by a margin of 11 per cent.
As a result a lot of people started laying into Corbyn but others have now come to his defence.
This latest blunder comes as Mr Corbyn is locked in a bitter row over the leadership of the Labour party with rival Owen Smith.
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.
Another said Khan “spends his time writing articles to help his masters in Tel Aviv”, while a further tweet attacked the mayor as a “Zionist” together with an image of Khan in front of a London Jewish Forum banner.
But supporters of Mr Corbyn rallied around the leader, claiming that all the seats the leader allegedly walked past had been reserved or even claiming it was footage from a different train.
It is not clear where passengers might have had the opportunity to get off the train for this to be true. Corbyn was filmed on the floor on his journey to Newcastle on 11 August while criticising Britain’s rail services.
Separately, The Guardian newspaper also reports that one passenger interviewed after Virgin’s claims were made said “there were people standing in all the corridors”.
A Virgin Trains spokesman said Mr Corbyn was right to raise the need for more trains, which they say are doing with 68 more coming into service from 2018.
He went on: “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”.
The staff then upgraded a family to first class so Mr Corbyn and his team could sit in their seats.
“Passengers across Britain will have been in similar situations on overcrowded, expensive trains”.
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“Is that not a good case for public ownership”.
