US election ‘interference’ row awkward for Starmer if Trump wins

Published

9 months ago

October 23, 2024

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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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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.

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.

Politics

Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

The CARF regulation, which brings crypto under global tax reporting standards akin to traditional finance, marks a crucial turning point.

Politics

Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

The nascent real-world tokenized assets track prices but do not provide investors the same legal rights as holding the underlying instruments.

Politics

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

13 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”