While Jeremy Corbyn has been engaged in a public spat with Virgin Trains, it has emerged that his party has “teamed up” with the company to offer discount tickets to Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool next month.
On Tuesday Virgin Trains denied that Corbyn was forced to sit on the floor of what he claimed was a “ram-packed” train from London to Newcastle on his way to a Labour leadership debate in Gateshead. When the company questioned Corbyn’s integrity by issuing CCTV images of empty seats on the train, some of the Labour leader’s supporters called for a boycott of Virgin’s products and services.
Others suggested that Virgin’s attempt to undermine Corbyn were motivated by his support for renationalising the railways.
But far from shunning the company, Labour has done a deal with Virgin to give its members a 20% discount on Virgin train tickets to Liverpool during the party annual conference in the city. In the latest twist to the traingate saga, Labour said it had “teamed up with Virgin Trains to offer an exclusive discount on rail travel to all attendees of annual conference 2016.”
For its part Virgin said: “Labour’s annual conference is one of the high profile political events in Europe. Attracting over 10,000 people, it’s the ideal place to network, share great ideas and an opportunity to mingle with like-minded people.”
It even suggested that party delegates who took up the offer would get a seat on the trains.
It said: “With regular trains from London Euston, we can get you straight to Liverpool in just 2hrs 14mins, giving you the time to put your feet up or make those last-minute preparations. Our trains will deliver you to the heart of Liverpool arriving fresh and prepared.”
Earlier this week Corbyn’s campaign director, Sam Tarry, said that by highlighting the row on his Twitter feed Branson had helped fuel the public’s desire to bring back the railways into public ownership. He also described Branson as a tax exile who was “laughing all the way to the bank”.
Asked about the Labour deal with Virgin, Tarry told the Guardian he was not aware of it. Later he added: “This is a matter for the Labour Party and the Labour Party general secretary who oversees arrangements for party conference.”
