Millionaire Osborne caught sitting in First Class Train....only paid Standard Class Fare.

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'Move Mr Osborne? But he can't possibly sit in standard class': Chancellor has to stump up £189 for ticket upgrade

• Millionaire MP 'argued with train staff' after refusing to leave First Class
  
• Chancellor's aide insisted Osborne could not sit in Standard Class
  
• Ticket inspector refused to back down, ordering the MP to pay £160 upgrade
  
• Critics blast chancellor for 'thinking he is above normal rules and laws'
  
• No11 plays down incident, saying Mr Osborne was 'happy to pay' for upgrade
  
  

By Gerri Peev and John Stevens

PUBLISHED:17:08, 19 October 2012| UPDATED:01:21, 20 October 2012

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George Osborne was forced to hand over nearly £200 yesterday by a railway ticket inspector – after he sat in a first-class seat with a standard-class ticket.


The Chancellor of the Exchequer was spotted on the express service from his constituency in Cheshire to London as he watched a DVD on a computer.


Yesterday fellow passengers even claimed Mr Osborne had refused to leave the first-class carriage and sit with those in the cheaper seats.



Going off the track: George Osborne on the train from Wilmslow to London - sitting pretty in First Class on a standard fare ticket

Instead, he agreed to foot the bill but dispatched his police protection officer to standard class while he stayed put with his assistant.

The drama happened on the 3.11pm Virgin Trains service from Wilmslow, Cheshire, to London Euston and was revealed on Twitter by Rachel Townsend, a journalist with Granada TV.


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She tweeted: ‘Very interesting train journey to Euston Chancellor George Osborne just got on at Wilmslow with a STANDARD ticket and he has sat in FIRST 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 remain in First Class. Ticket collector refuses.’



Reporter Rachel Townsend gave a running commentary on Twitter as the Chancellor tried to avoid paying for a First Class ticket

She later said Mr Osborne’s aide had approached the ticket collector to ask if Mr Osborne could remain in first class but the guard refused.


She added: ‘The aide said Osborne couldn’t possibly sit in standard class. The guard replied saying if he wants to stay, it’s £160.


‘The aide said he couldn’t pay and he couldn’t really sit in standard. The guard refused to budge.


‘The guard went on gathering tickets and later told me Osborne had agreed to cough up the £160.’


Her account was disputed by sources close to Mr Osborne, who insisted there was never any question of him not paying for the upgrade – and it came to £189.90 for the two tickets.


As Mr Osborne’s train pulled in at Euston at just after 5pm an aide and two police officers went to the carriage door to accompany him off.


Stopped in his tracks: Chancellor George Osborne is confronted by journalists as he leaves Manchester train at Euston station this afternoon





Under siege: Mr Osborne - worth an estimated £4.6m - faces fresh embarrassment after clashing with a ticket inspector who insisted he pay the full price to remain in the First Class carriage

Mr Osborne appeared surprised at the presence of journalists asking him why he had not sat in standard class as he left the train.


He refused to answer questions and was quickly whisked to a service exit from the platform away from the public.



All in it together: Chancellor George Osborne refused to sit in Standard Class, according to witnesses

Passengers said he had been watching a film with an aide and laughing loudly before he was challenged by the ticket inspector.


Richard Warren, who works in advertising, was travelling in standard class but went into first class looking for the buffet and spotted Mr Osborne.


He said: ‘He was watching a DVD on a laptop with a female aide.


‘It was obviously a comedy as they were laughing loudly. They were sharing the earphones and had one each.
‘I only went down into first class because I was looking for the buffet and I spotted him.


‘I saw that he was watching a film and thought it was funny because of David Cameron’s nickname “DVD Dave”.’


A spokesman at Virgin Rail said: ‘The Chancellor caught the 15.11 train from Wilmslow. We did not know he would be on board.


‘An aide, believed to be a policeman or security officer, approached the train manager who was still going through the standard-class carriage. The policeman told the manager: “I have the Chancellor and a member of his staff in first-class, how much would it cost to upgrade?”


‘The train manager told him it would be around £200, to which the aide said, “That’s quite a lot, let me go back and check if it’s OK”.


‘He then came back and said he would pay the money, which came to £189.90 for two of them.’


A source close to Mr Osborne said: ‘The Chancellor got a different train than planned due to a diary change following a series of meetings in his constituency.


‘As he had no seat reservation on the new train which was crowded, he decided to upgrade – and obviously intended and was happy to pay. An aide sorted the ticket upgrade.’


Michael Dugher, Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: ‘Another day, another demonstration of how out of touch this Government is.


‘Just like Andrew Mitchell, George Osborne obviously thinks it’s one rule for him and another for the plebs he’s so keen to sit apart from.


‘So much for “we’re all in it together”.’


MPs are not allowed to reclaim the costs of first-class tickets but taxpayers have to fund any standard-class rail travel.


Last night, there was a suggestion that Mr Osborne may have tried to sit in first class with a standard ticket before.


A tweet issued in May from a passenger on the Chancellor’s train said: ‘Ticket inspector on my train just got a high five: George Osborne tried to sit in 1st class with std tkt.


‘Inspector said NO.'

As a well known and fully paid up pleb, I wouldn't want to sit in the same railway carriage as Osborne... Would you?

The gravy train: 185 MPs travel first class and 24 claim for club class flights


More than 180 MPs - including a third of the shadow cabinet - are enjoying first-class train travel at the taxpayer’s expense, an investigation has revealed.








The Chancellor settled into first class with his special adviser Photo: REUTERS/ITV GRANADA REPORTS






By Robert Watts, Deputy Political Editor

9:00PM BST 20 Oct 2012

667 Comments




Under rules introduced in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal, MPs are normally required to travel by standard class.


But our investigation shows that MPs are exploiting a loophole which allows them to buy first-class tickets in particular circumstances. Some have cost up to £300 - five times more than the cheapest standard fare on the same route.


Although the claims comply with the rules, the expenses watchdog has repeatedly stressed that MPs should exercise “restraint” when claiming public money.


The full scale of travel spending by MPs emerges two days after George Osborne was in a first-class train carriage with a standard-class ticket.


An aide of Mr Osborne yesterday said that the Chancellor always intended to pay the upgrade and that there was no dispute with the train’s manager

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Doesn't it make you sick when the population is expected to accept the stringent cuts yet our Government does not think it should affect them, shame on the b***dy lot of them.

I can't remember the details , but George Osborne, before the Conservatives won the election, was reportedly seen on the Yacht of a Russian Oligarch , created a lot of suspicion at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_oligarchs
Makes interesting reading Panda...

malena stool wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_oligarchs
Makes interesting reading Panda...

Thanks, malena, there was no mention of GO so I searched and there was no rweference to the incident, I think it was before the General Election , although our Graoge is a Millionaire so it might have had something to do with his Business interests.

Doesn't it make you sick......the two most powerful Countries in the U.N. and G20 , China and Russia are as corrupt as any , consistently veto any attempt to send in troops to Countries where innocent people are being killed and their Countries reduced to rubble. This is because they have a vested interest .