US election ‘interference’ row awkward for Starmer if Trump wins
If Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November this could be rather awkward.
The Trump-Vance campaign have accused the Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election and are demanding a formal investigation into Labour members’ campaigning for their Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
But is this anything new, or just a political stunt from team Trump?
Starmer says relationship with Trump is unchanged – Politics latest
The Trump camp’s unease about what they see as Labour interfering in domestic US politics in part came about because of a now-deleted post on networking site LinkedIn last week, in which Labour’s head of operations, Sofia Patel, said: “I have nearly 100 Labour Party staff, current and former, going to the US in the next few weeks, heading to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“I have 10 spots available for anyone available to head to the battleground state of [North] Carolina – we will sort your housing.”
This post triggered a backlash from Republicans where some felt the social media post indicated Labour’s – and therefore the government’s – support for the Harris campaign.
According to US law, foreign nationals can legally volunteer for a campaign as long as they are not paid.
The Federal Election Commission is clear, however, that foreign national volunteers “must be careful not to participate in the decision-making process of the campaign”.
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Jack Blanchard says the prime minister could have an awkward time further up the road if Donald Trump wins the US election.
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There is no suggestion or evidence to suggest that Labour volunteers have been involved in any campaign decision-making for the Harris campaign, neither is there evidence that the Labour Party funded or organised these trips to the US or made any financial contribution to the Harris campaign.
There is a long history of politicians and activists meeting with and championing like-minded parties across the pond, for example both Nigel Farage and Liz Truss are both vocal backers of Donald Trump and have appeared at Republican events in the past.
Moreover, the Labour Party traditionally send a delegation to the Democratic Convention which is also within the rules, and, after Clinton’s electoral success, both Blair and Brown flew to Washington to meet with Democratic campaign advisers in the 1990s.
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The prime minister has insisted there is nothing new or unprecedented about Labour volunteers heading over to the US in their own time and paid for out of their own pockets in a personal capacity to support Kamala Harris.
And Starmer maintains that the political rapport between the US and the UK has not been jeopardised by this spat.
Political parties share best practices with one another all the time, so one would argue this is no different.
But with vocal backers like former prime minister Liz Truss and Elon Musk – who is himself being accused of breaking electoral law – accusing Labour of breaking US Federal law, team Trump look set to continue to demonise the status quo in US politics, even if that means attacking a possible future counterpart.
Reform’s plan was meant to be detailed. Instead, there’s more confusion.
The party had grown weary of the longstanding criticism that their tough talk on immigration did not come with a full proposal for what they would do to tackle small boats if they came to power.
So, after six months of planning, yesterday they attempted to put flesh on to the bones of their flagship policy.
Politics latest: Farage rows back on pledge to deport illegal migrant women and girls
At an expensive press conference in a vast airhanger in Oxford, the headline news was clear: Reform UK would deport anyone who comes here by small boat, arresting, detaining and then deporting up to 600,000 people in the first five years of governing.
They would leave international treaties and repeal the Human Rights Act to do it
But, one day later, that policy is clear as mud when it comes to who this would apply to.
Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA
I asked Farage at the time of the announcement whether this would apply to women and girls – an important question – as the basis for their extreme policy seemed to hinge on the safety of women and girls in the UK.
He was unequivocal: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.
“And I’ve accepted already that how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue.”
But a day later, he appeared to row back on this stance at a press conference in Scotland, saying Reform is “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.
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He later clarified that if a single woman came by boat, then they could fall under the policy, but if “a woman comes with children, we will work out the best thing to do”.
A third clarification in the space of 24 hours on a flagship policy they worked on over six months seems like a pretty big gaffe, and it only feeds into the Labour criticism that these plans aren’t yet credible.
If they had hoped to pivot from rhetoric to rigour, this announcement showed serious pitfalls.
But party strategists probably will not be tearing out too much hair over this, with polling showing Reform UK still as the most trusted party on the issue of immigration overall.
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