Virgin Trains did not breach data protection laws when it published CCTV images of Jeremy Corbyn trying to find a seat on one of its services, the Information Commissioner’s Office has ruled.

While normally such publication would breach the rules, Virgin had a “legitimate interest” in releasing footage of Corbyn to counter what the train company saw as misleading news reports that the Labour leader had been unable to find a seat.

Virgin broke own rules by releasing Corbyn CCTV, document shows Read more

However, the ICO ruling said Virgin had breached the data protection rights of some of the other passengers on the train by not pixelating them.

The complaints to the ICO follow a series of stories about the Traingate affair.

It began when a filmmaker following Corbyn as he campaigned to remain Labour leader took footage of him sitting on the floor of the train from London to Newcastle on 11 August.

In the video, Corbyn complained about the “ram-packed” train, saying such overcrowding was too common for many rail passengers.

However, Virgin disputed with Corbyn’s comments, releasing CCTV images of him walking past apparently empty seats before the video was shot, and then sitting down shortly afterwards.

The train operator said it had 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”.

Corbyn insisted he had been accurate, saying that while there had been some available seats, he had not been able to sit with his wife, and that he was only able to sit later because train staff had upgraded another family to first class to create space.



A statement by Steve Eckersley, the ICO’s head of enforcement, said there would usually be no reason for Virgin to publish images of anyone on a train.



He said: “In this case, the ICO’s view was that Virgin had a legitimate interest, namely correcting what it deemed to be misleading news reports that were potentially damaging to its reputation and commercial interests.

“It would not have been possible to achieve Virgin’s legitimate interests without publishing Mr Corbyn’s image. Virgin could only show that there were empty seats on Mr Corbyn’s journey if they showed Mr Corbyn on that journey.”

He said the Labour leader would also have “different expectations than other passengers as to his privacy” on the train, given he had already made a video showing him on the trip, and that he could expect Virgin to “respond in kind”.

But Eckersley said Virgin was wrong to publish pictures of others on the train, and by doing so had “infringed on the privacy of passengers who were simply minding their own business”.

However, the ICO is not taking action against Virgin over this as only three people were recognisable in the footage, with most pixelated, and none of the affected passengers contacted the organisation to complain.

But, the statement said, Virgin would “strengthen its data protection training for everyone from new starters to the top tier executives” and amend its policy on CCTV.