Donald Trump has filed a legal complaint against Labour after revelations that almost 100 of Sir Keir Starmer’s aides travelled to the United States to campaign for Kamala Harris’ election bid.
The Republican presidential candidate’s action emerged following a LinkedIn post by Labour’s head of operations Sofia Patel advertising opportunities to join those from the party already in the US helping the Democrats’ campaign ahead of the election on November 5.
The post, which has since been removed from the social media platform, called for for “current and former” party staffers to “head to the battleground state of North Carolina”.
The allegation of “blatant foreign interference” by the Labour party was dismissed by Sir Keir.
He addressed the issue on a flight to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit where the prime minister told reporters that UK Labour staff were “doing it in their spare time…as volunteers”.
He said that Labour campaigners “have gone over pretty much every election” and denied the altercation was threatening his own relations with Trump.
“We established a good relationship,” Sir Keir said about a dinner they had together at New York’s Trump Tower last month.
“We had a good, constructive discussion and, of course as prime minister of the United Kingdom I will work with whoever the American people return as their president.”
In accordance with Federal Election Commission rules, foreign nationals are allowed to join political campaigning in the US providing they do not receive compensation.
Labour maintain they have not funded accommodation or travel costs for campaigners, in which case their actions remain within the rules.
The formal letter to the Federal Election Commission by Trump’s deputy general counsel Gary Lawkowski said: “When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them.
“This past week marked the 243th anniversary of the surrender of British forces at the Battle of Yorktown, a military victory that ensured that the United States would be politically independent of Great Britain.
“It appears that the Labour Party and the Harris for President campaign have forgotten the message.”
British Defense Secretary John Healey said: “Any individual Labour supporters who are over there in the US being part of the Democratic election campaign are there in their own time.
“They’re there at their own expense and if they’ve got accommodation out there that will also be provided by volunteers.
“It’s very different to the determination of the Labour government to work with whoever the American people elect next month as their president.”
Next month’s presidential election is proving hard to call.
A National Poll published on Friday by The New York Times showed former president Trump and Harris tied at 48 percent each.
The legal complaint is not the first time that Labour has aligned itself with Democrat values or shown opposition to Donald Trump.
The current chancellor Rachel Reeves praised “Bidenomics” in a 2023 Washington speech, adopting ideas from the former US president’s economic policy.
In 2016, now-Energy Secretary Ed Miliband criticised the former president as a “racist, misogynist, self-confessed groper” during an interview with the BBC.
The now-Foreign Secretary David Lammy echoed this in 2017, calling Donald Trump a “woman hating neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”.
In response, former US ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson told The Spectator Lammy’s comments were not “wise”.
Johnson added: “I think people will remember all those comments.”
It is understood Sir Keir has never met vice-president Harris, though relations between the Democrats and the Labour Party are well established, and the prime minister has convened with president Joe Biden on several occasions.
