Virgin Trains was today cleared of breaching data protection laws after it published CCTV of Jeremy Corbyn on one of its trains amid a row about overcrowding.

The Information Commissioner's Office said the rail operator should have taken more care to hide other passengers' faces.

In an extraordinary row last summer, Mr Corbyn published a video of him sat on the floor of a Virgin train complaining about overcrowding.

But Virgin hit back and published footage of the Labour leader walking past empty seats on the London to Newcastle service.

Virgin Trains was today cleared of breaching data protection laws after it published CCTV of Jeremy Corbyn (pictured last summer on the floor of a Virgin train) on one of its trains amid a row about overcrowding

Mr Corbyn filmed the footage to protest against overcrowding on privately run trains but Virgin issued CCTV showing him with a seat (pictured)

Billionaire Richard Branson personally intervened on the row to slam Mr Corbyn for being misleading.

Virgin was accused of breaching data protection laws by using the CCTV footage to prove the Labour leader had a seat.

Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the data watchdog said:'The ICO has ruled that Virgin Trains East Coast did not break data protection law when it published CCTV footage of Jeremy Corbyn looking for a seat on a service from London.

'But the company did breach the law when it published images of other passengers on the same service.

'The ICO found that Virgin should have taken better care to obscure the faces of other people on the train.

'Publication of their images was unfair and a breach of the first principle of the Data Protection Act.'

Billionaire Richard Branson personally intervened on the row to slam Mr Corbyn for being misleading and ordered the release of the CCTV (pictured)

The Information Commissioner's Office said the rail operator should have taken more care to hide other passengers' faces but cleared it of breaking the law with the footage (pictured)

Mr Exckersley added: 'We’ve stopped short of formal regulatory action to reflect the exceptional circumstances of the breach.

'In particular that this was a one-off incident, and the people identified were unlikely to suffer serious distress or detriment.

'But Virgin has not been let off the hook. Our investigation was rigorous and compelled the company to provide us with details of its practices, policies and procedures.

'The company was under no illusion of the seriousness of our involvement.'

In the video which infuriated Virgin, Mr Corbyn said: 'This is a problem that many passengers face every day on the trains, commuters and long-distance travellers.

'Today this train is completely ram-packed. The staff on the train are absolutely brilliant, working really hard to help everybody.

'The reality is there are not enough trains, we need more of them and they're also incredibly expensive. Isn't that a good case for public ownership?'

Mr Corbyn - who famously promised 'straight-talking, honest politics' - was said to have turned down the offer of a first class ticket, saying: 'Is it fair that I should upgrade my ticket whilst others who might not be able to afford such a luxury should have to sit on the floor?'

In CCTV stills released by Virgin seemingly show Mr Corbyn in a seat on the same journey.

The billionaire founder of Virgin Trains Richard Branson personally intervened on the row to slam Mr Corbyn for being misleading (file picture)

Having left King's Cross at 11am on August 11, the Labour leader is seen walking down the aisle of coach H.

The footage is time-stamped at 11.10am, but it was actually 11.07am owing to the system clock being three minutes fast, Virgin Trains said.

Passing through coach F, Mr Corbyn can be seen walking past several empty reserved seats.

Having walked to the end of the train, the Labour team are believed to have started filming shortly before 11.30am.

By 11.43am he is seen returning to coach H, and taking a seat.

There had been claims that the train had emptied out en route, but it seems the first stop was at York around 12.50pm - well after the video was shot.

Since the bizarre row, Mr Corbyn (pictured on Saturday in Durham) has defied expectations to run a better than expected - but still losing - general election campaign

On the day of the row, a Virgin Trains spokeswoman said: 'Our people deliver first-rate customer service day after day and we'd like to thank Jeremy Corbyn for highlighting this with the media.

'He's also right to point out the need to introduce more trains on our route – that's why we're introducing a brand new fleet of 65 Azuma trains from 2018, which will increase seating capacity out of King's Cross by 28 per cent at peak times.

'But 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.'

More than three hours after the allegations surfaced, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn finally responded.

'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,' the spokesman said.

'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.'