Zarah Sultana’s nationalisation plans derailed

It’s not been an easy time for Zarah Sultana, the Labour party firebrand cum TikTok influencer. Not only was the MP reduced to tears last year after the departure of her sainted Jeremy Corbyn, but she now faces a desperate struggle to hold on to her Coventry seat as well, which she won by a tiny 401 votes in 2019.

So spare a thought for Sultana, who was due to speak at an ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign in Leeds last night – alongside that intellectual titan of the Labour party, Richard Burgon – but found herself instead on a delayed train outside London for three hours.

Now Steerpike can sympathise with users of Britain’s train network, which can be frustrating at the best of times. But one wonders if Sultana is really on top of the problems with our rail system.

Tweeting about the delay, Sultana sent her apologies to the people of Leeds that she couldn’t make it (Mr S is sure they’ll survive) and added the near-obligatory paean to public ownership:

‘Just another reminder that we need to bring rail into public ownership and make it fit for the future!’

Unfortunately for her a London North Eastern Railway representative called Cameron was on hand to explain that Sultana’s journey had been delayed because of damage to overhead electric wires (Steerpike isn’t quite sure how privatisation can be blamed for that) and that, errr, LNER is already owned by the Department for Transport and the franchise has been in public hands since 2018.