(Picture: Virgin Trains)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has responded to claims that he lied about sitting on the floor of a Virgin Train.

Responding to Virgin Trains’ claims that seats were available, a spokesperson for the Jeremy for Labour campaign said: ‘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.

Virgin Trains say Corbyn lied about sitting on the floor and Twitter is having a field day

‘Later in the journey, seats became available after a family were upgraded to first class, and Jeremy and the team he was travelling with were offered the seats by a very helpful member of staff.



‘Passengers across Britain will have been in similar situations on overcrowded, expensive trains.


To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

‘That is why our policy to bring the trains back into public ownership, as part of a plan to rebuild and transform Britain, is so popular with passengers and rail workers.’

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who co-owns Virgin Trains with Stagecoach, posted a link to the CCTV images on Twitter.

Mr Corbyn & team walked past empty unreserved seats then filmed claim train was ‘ram-packed’ https://t.co/R5hawIpQek pic.twitter.com/22t8EkjW5l — Richard Branson (@richardbranson) August 23, 2016

CCTV footage below shows Mr Corbyn sitting in a seat on the same train journey where he was filmed sitting on the floor (Picture: SWNS)

A statement released by Virgin Trains earlier today said: ‘We have to take issue with the idea that Mr Corbyn wasn’t able to be seated on the service, as this clearly wasn’t the case. 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 onboard again.’

Germans told to stockpile food and water in case of an attack

The release went on: ‘Seats were available on the train in which Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was filmed sitting on the floor, Virgin Trains has found.

‘Film footage released to the media showed Mr Corbyn sitting on the floor of a three-hour Virgin Trains service from London to Newcastle claiming it was “ram-packed”.

‘CCTV footage taken from the train on August 11 shows Mr Corbyn and his team walked past empty, unreserved seats in coach H before walking through the rest of the train to the far end, where his team sat on the floor and started filming.’