The Government will renationalise one of Britain's busiest railway lines after its private operators admitted they could not afford to keep running it.

Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, announced on Wednesday that he will pull the plug on the East Coast rail franchise after a string of failures by Stagecoach and Virgin Trains and rename it the London North Eastern Railway.

The decision to temporarily bring the line back into public ownership is politically embarrassing for the Government, which has repeatedly defended the private franchise model for the railways.

It comes amid concern from Tory MPs that Jeremy Corbyn’s call to renationalise the railways is cutting through to the electorate.

Labour accused the Government of giving Stagecoach and Virgin Trains a £2 billion "bailout" and of "incompetence" after Mr Grayling made the announcement in the House of Commons.

The Transport Secretary told MPs: "I am therefore informing the House that I will terminate Virgin Trains’ East Coast contract on the 24th of June 2018.