ITV’s Rachel Townsend had a more exciting train journey into Euston than she might have expected this afternoon. She discovered George Osborne sitting in first class with a standard ticket.
CLASS. His aide tells ticket collector he cannot possibly move and sit with the likes of us in standard class and requests he is allowed to
— Rachel Townsend (@RachTownsendITV) October 19, 2012
remain in First Class. Ticket collector refuses #standoff
— Rachel Townsend (@RachTownsendITV) October 19, 2012
What a shame that this happened on a quiet and rainy Friday afternoon in Westminster when every hack and blogger was twiddling their thumbs and wondering what to do. Within minutes, they were starting to flood into Euston station to greet the Chancellor from his awkward train journey back from his constituency.
This is the end to a week where the political news has almost written itself. David Cameron fluffed a big energy policy announcement and Andrew Mitchell did his best to keep the row about his remarks to a policeman going for a little longer. Osborne has fallen prey to the classic mistake of a politician being so worried about receiving a drubbing for their expense claim for a first-class ticket that they end up in a great deal more bother by travelling in first class with the wrong ticket. ‘Chancellor sits in first class’ is not a story. ‘Chancellor sits in first class with invalid ticket’ is a story, especially when the Mitchell row is still alive. Perhaps Theresa May will jump a queue at Greggs next week, just to make the story a little more perfect.
PS This tweet, from May, suggests it’s not the first time that the Chancellor has – ahem – sought to save the taxpayer money in this way:-
Ticket inspector on my train just got a high five: george osborne tried to sit in 1st class with a std tkt. Inspector said NO
— Larold (@Larrylarrylal) May 28, 2012
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