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Coffee Shots: Jeremy Corbyn gets a seat

He will say: “Drawing on Britain’s rich cultural heritage, Labour under my leadership will commit to extending access and participation in the arts to all people and all communities across Britain”.

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Relations are also in deep freeze with the Labour deputy leader, Tom Watson, whom Corbyn supporters suspect of trying to rally support behind the scenes for Mr Smith.

Mr Corbyn has been forced to employ Mr Anderson, who is MP for the English seat of Blaydon, as his shadow Scottish secretary as Labour’s sole Scottish MP quit the left-winger’s top team after growing fed up with his leadership.

Smith said: “I think Jeremy can’t bring himself to say he would argue for a second referendum or put into a Labour manifesto that we would stay within the European Union because he fundamentally never believed in the European union”.

He said: “I am extremely concerned that suspensions and bans are being imposed in an arbitrary or politically motivated way in this election, and I will be raising the issue with the general secretary”.

“But I wasn’t talking about Jeremy. That wasn’t possible, so I went to the end of the train”.

When questioned by reporters about the train journey, his spat with Virgin and his support in Scotland, he repeatedly said: “Thanks very much, lovely to see you all”.

“We sat down there and we then conducted a lot of preparatory work for our visit to Newcastle”.

Virgin Trains, which was recording Mr Corbyn and other passengers using CCTV cameras, has released still images that it says shows free seats on the train where the video was recorded.

Mr Corbyn responded: “It’s an enormous honour to be selected and elected as a Labour member of Parliament”.

The response triggered a media frenzy, with Virgin also releasing CCTV images of Corbyn eventually finding a seat on the train.

He initially insisted the train was overcrowded, and then said that he couldn’t find two unoccupied seats next to one another for him and for his wife.

“Where there’s a suggestion that this hasn’t happened, the ICO has the power to investigate and can take enforcement action if necessary”.

A Virgin Trains spokesman said the company had not yet been approached by the ICO, but meant to answer any questions asked.

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Meanwhile, Corbyn’s leadership campaign manager Sam Tarry earlier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he believed that Richard Branson had initiated the row in order to protect his company.

Owen Smith Labour leadership candidate