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?

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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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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.