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| Owen Smith: CCTV shows Jeremy Corbyn chose to sit on train floor | Owen Smith: CCTV shows Jeremy Corbyn chose to sit on train floor |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that there were too few seats for him and his team to sit together on the Virgin Trains journey that sparked a public row with Richard Branson on Tuesday — and reminded the Virgin boss of his policy to nationalise the railways. | |
| Corbyn reacted angrily when repeatedly asked about the controversy at the launch of Labour’s health policies in London on Wednesday. | |
| “I boarded a crowded train with a group of colleagues; we journeyed through the train looking for places; there wasn’t a place for all of us to sit down, and so for 40 minutes or so we remained on the floor of the train, in the vestibule,” he said, explaining that a sympathetic train manager later found him and his team,including his wife, a seat, by upgrading other passengers. | |
| Corbyn added that he was “happy to discuss train arrangements at any time” with Virgin, and his experience chimed with that of many commuters, who frequently experience overcrowding. | |
| Asked again by a Sky journalist about what was rapidly dubbed #traingate on Twitter yesterday, a tetchy Corbyn initially refused to answer, before saying he hoped Branson was aware of Labour’s policy of bringing train operating companies into the public realm. | |
| Labour’s leader was drawn into a row with Virgin Trains after the rail operator disputed his account of being forced to sit on the floor of a “ram-packed” train, releasing CCTV footage of him apparently walking past free seats before the video was shot. | Labour’s leader was drawn into a row with Virgin Trains after the rail operator disputed his account of being forced to sit on the floor of a “ram-packed” train, releasing CCTV footage of him apparently walking past free seats before the video was shot. |
| The Labour leader also commented on remarks by his leadership rival, Owen Smith, who appeared to suggest at a rally in Hammersmith on Tuesday night that a “lunatic” was in charge of the party. | |
| “I deplore the use of that language in any context, I don’t use it myself, and I will not use it today,” he said. | |
| Corbyn was speaking alongside shadow health secretary Diane Abbott. The pair launched a series of policies, including a pledge to restore nurses bursaries, and to attempt to buy hospitals out of costly private finance initiative contracts.” | |
| Student nurse Danielle, introducing Corbyn, said: “To take away the bursary will not only deter students, it is one of the most insulting things I have seen this government do since they came to office”. | |
| Corbyn said: “I cannot accept that in Britain, the fifth biggest economy in the world, we do not have the resources to look after our fathers, our mothers and our grandparents”, He promised to “restore the NHS”, saying Britain was a “country of compassion”. It was unclear how the policies would be paid for — though Abbott said an increase in corporation tax could fund the restoration of nurses’ bursaries | |
| Owen Smith, Corbyn’s challenger, Smith said that despite the traingate row, Corbyn had made an important and legitimate point, and he echoed the Labour leader’s call for the renationalisation of Britain’s railways. | |
| Asked on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 about whether he believed the story given by Virgin Trains and i Branson, Smith said: “Well I’m not quite sure what the Corbyn version of events is because I think it changed a couple of times yesterday, but what is clear from the footage that I have seen is that he had a seat on the train and there were seats on the train and he chose to sit on the floor for the purposes of the video. | |
| “But I do think he was trying to make a legitimate point and trains are overcrowded and I think we should nationalise them in order to try and make sure that they serve the British people rather better.” | “But I do think he was trying to make a legitimate point and trains are overcrowded and I think we should nationalise them in order to try and make sure that they serve the British people rather better.” |
| Smith sounded slightly less comfortable defending his own apparent gaffe, in which he appeared to call Corbyn “a lunatic” in a speech on Tuesday night. Speaking to supporters at a rally in Hammersmith, west London, Smith said “… what you won’t have from me is some lunatic at the top of the Labour party”. | Smith sounded slightly less comfortable defending his own apparent gaffe, in which he appeared to call Corbyn “a lunatic” in a speech on Tuesday night. Speaking to supporters at a rally in Hammersmith, west London, Smith said “… what you won’t have from me is some lunatic at the top of the Labour party”. |
| Corbyn’s campaign responded by accusing Smith of degrading the leadership contest by “descending into personal abuse” and using language offensive towards people with a mental illness. | Corbyn’s campaign responded by accusing Smith of degrading the leadership contest by “descending into personal abuse” and using language offensive towards people with a mental illness. |
| “He should apologise to people suffering with mental illness, many of whom would have been dismayed and upset to to hear such offensive language used in public by a Labour politician,” a spokesperson for the Corbyn campaign said. | “He should apologise to people suffering with mental illness, many of whom would have been dismayed and upset to to hear such offensive language used in public by a Labour politician,” a spokesperson for the Corbyn campaign said. |
| “He should also withdraw his remark, and spend time with people suffering from mental health problems to develop some sensitivity in his use of language. This is simply not the language that someone standing to lead our party should use, and it injects an ugly tone into this contest that no Labour member wants to see.” | “He should also withdraw his remark, and spend time with people suffering from mental health problems to develop some sensitivity in his use of language. This is simply not the language that someone standing to lead our party should use, and it injects an ugly tone into this contest that no Labour member wants to see.” |
| But Smith insisted on Today that he had not called Corbyn a lunatic, and that in fact he was saying that he was not a lunatic himself. “I was saying that I was not a lunatic, having been accused earlier in the evening of running around like a lunatic,” Smith said. | But Smith insisted on Today that he had not called Corbyn a lunatic, and that in fact he was saying that he was not a lunatic himself. “I was saying that I was not a lunatic, having been accused earlier in the evening of running around like a lunatic,” Smith said. |
| “I was saying I was not a lunatic, but if anybody is offended by the language used - that word - then I do apologise. I have done that already this morning and I’ll do it again. But I was not talking about Jeremy, I was talking about me.” | “I was saying I was not a lunatic, but if anybody is offended by the language used - that word - then I do apologise. I have done that already this morning and I’ll do it again. But I was not talking about Jeremy, I was talking about me.” |