Here’s everything we know so far about Corbyn’s secret visit to Sussex

Jeremy Corbyn, accompanied by Jo Platt MP, visited Sussex University today to meet with Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell and students that were part of the first-generation scholar scheme.

The meeting with the Labour leader was kept under strict guard and secrecy as students that were meeting him were not made aware of his visit.  Harry Norris, one student that met with Corbyn said: “We were told we were meeting with senior policymakers and that we couldn’t know who they were because of security reasons.”

Seminars and lectures in Jubilee were moved elsewhere to accommodate Corbyn and his team.

Harry continued to tell us that Corbyn took the time to chat to each student despite his security team attempting to rush him out.

Once Corbyn had met with the first-generation scholars, he met with Adam Tickell in the Jubilee study pods to discuss how students from low-income backgrounds were being accommodated.  In a statement released by Sussex University, Tickell commented:

“We welcomed the opportunity to have a constructive discussion with Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Platt on how the University of Sussex is making sure young people from all backgrounds get the chance to go to university, thrive while they are here and then go on to have great career prospects.

“Through our First-Generation Scholars scheme, the University is significantly investing in a programme which provides financial and pastoral support to around 40 per cent of our student body.

“We offer one of the most generous packages of support in the UK – not only giving students money in their pocket, but also developing opportunities to build their aspiration. Crucially, our FGS students are now just as likely to get a good degree and go onto graduate-level jobs as the rest of the Sussex student community.

“We know there is a lot of talk about university access and that’s why we invited Jeremy Corbyn to the University today, so that he could meet Sussex students and see the proof that schemes like ours really do work.”

Corbyn was on campus for a few hours before shooting off with his security team back to their HQ.