Jeremy Corbyn falls over running and shows up to support rail strikers with black eye

Jeremy Corbyn has revealed he suffered a split lip and a black eye when he tripped over a tree root while jogging on Wednesday.

The former Labor leader took part in rail pickets today with a massive glow under his left eye.

He sustained the injuries on a picket line outside Euston Station and said: “I was walking around Finsbury Park and unfortunately a tree root was over the path.

“Me and the tree root collided and I collided with the ground afterwards. There was no one else involved – just me – but I still love running.”

When asked if he would continue his run, the Labor leader replied: “Of course.”

He was one of several past and present Labor figures supporting strikes today.

He was met in London with Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana at a picket line at Euston station in the north of the capital.

Meanwhile in Manchester, Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was up against Sir Keir to lead the role in 2020, was among those attending pickets.

Salford MP and Graham Stringer from Blackley and Broughton defiantly joined the members of the RMT and TSSA in Manchester. More than 45,000 rail workers across the country have one by one left for pay.

It came despite a warning from a Labor frontbencher that their visible support would “not solve this problem” or bring the party to power.

Left MPs have previously joined pickets and Sam Tarry was sacked as Transport Secretary after joining one in London last month.

Mr Corbyn criticized Sir Keir Starmer’s sacking of Mr Tarry.

The former Labor leader – with a black eye and a split lip from a running injury – testified from a picket line outside London’s Euston station that Sam Tarry’s treatment was “very unfair”.

Mr Corbyn said: “Sam is a trade unionist like me, he used to work for the TSSA, he went on picket lines to support his union and its members.

“I think it was very unfair to sack him from his shadow position.”

He told Mr Tarry after his sacking that he was “very sorry because he’s doing a very good job, he’s trying to come up with a…much better national transport strategy”.

But shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told Times Radio: “We want to be the next government, so if we were the government we would be sitting at this negotiating table and settling the dispute, we would be a party to those negotiations.

“I don’t think picketing will solve this problem.

“I think it’s right that we’re speaking to workers who are being impacted by all this cost of living pressures, but my priority is to make sure we get a Labor government that’s capable of some of these big ones to fix problems that we face as a country.”

Asked whether Labor frontbenchers are allowed to go and stand on a picket line, Ms Phillipson said she had “not had a discussion about it”.