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Donald Trump has accused the Labour Party of attempting to influence the US presidential election, with his campaign now filing a complaint with the independent Federal Election Commission to that effect. Labour rejects the allegations.
According to a recent LinkedIn post, around 100 Labour members are travelling to the US to volunteer for Kamala Harris in the final stretch of the campaign. Trump’s team has said the post by Sofia Patel, Labour’s head of operations, is evidence of “blatant foreign interference”.
Patel said she had almost 100 “current and former party staff” ready to campaign for Harris in swing states, adding that there were 10 spots left for anyone who wanted to join.
Trump’s team says the post’s offer to “sort your housing” amounts to a contribution to the Harris campaign from a foreign country — which is not allowed. Labour says that anyone travelling to the US is doing so in their own capacity, and that such arrangements have stood for many years.
Trump, that said, is not a politician who particularly values precedent — and his unpredictable and chaotic vindictiveness threaten to turn this into a real problem story for Starmer, legal arguments aside. Labour will hope Republican officials are simply courting controversy at a crucial moment in the election campaign and that Trump, the future president potentially, will not hold a grudge against Starmer if he reenters the White House.
The prime minister has been scrupulous in his attempts to build relations with the former president in recent months. The real story here, therefore, is that Starmer’s diplomatic advances now risk being undone by a LinkedIn post from an obscure Labour staffer.
Starmer, speaking to reporters as he travelled to Samoa for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders, insisted that Labour members planned to campaign in the US on an entirely voluntary basis. “That’s what they’ve done in previous elections”, the prime minister said, “is what they’re doing in this election. And that’s really straightforward.”
Now then, with Starmer currently on his way to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Angela Rayner stepped up at PMQs this afternoon. My thoughts below on her tussle with Oliver Dowden.
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PMQs verdict: Angela Rayner lovingly eviscerates Dowden in final ‘battle of the gingers’
Lunchtime briefing
Budget tax rises necessary to avoid austerity, Rachel Reeves suggests
Lunchtime soundbite
‘Will the deputy prime minister join me in applauding the brave Labour staff members who travelled across the Atlantic to campaign against Donald Trump?’
— SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn questions Angela Rayner at PMQs today. The deputy PM responds: “People in their own time often go and campaign, and that’s what we’ve seen.
“It happens in all political parties, people go and campaign and they do what they want to do with their own time, with their own money.”
Now try this…
‘Why releasing prisoners early could be a victory for ‘sensible Starmer’’
The Labour government has been forced into the unpopular policy — and to sweeten the deal, they’ve brought in some Conservative cover, writes The Independent’s John Rentoul.
‘A Trump victory would end ‘normal’ politics between UK and US’
Via The FT’s Stephen Bush. (Paywall)
‘Votes with that? How the politics of McDonald’s went global’
Politico’s Rosa Prince writes that, from Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to Kemi Badenoch, politicians are embracing the burger.
On this day in 2022:
Boris Johnson pulls out – Attention now focusses on how many of his backers will turn to Penny Mordaunt
