Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed Donald Trump‘s complaint about Labour activists campaigning for Democrats in the US election and insists it will not jeopardise his relationship with the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump’s campaign has filed a formal claim of election interference against Labour and Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign for “making and accepting illegal foreign national contributions”.
The complaint centres on meetings between Labour officials and the Harris campaign and people connected to Starmer’s party going to the US to volunteer for the Democrat campaign.
But the Prime Minister insisted this was a “straightforward” arrangement that had happened in the past, and suggested he had established a “good” relationship with Trump following a “constructive discussion” over dinner in New York last month during the UN General Assembly.
Speaking to reporters as he travelled to the Commonwealth heads of government summit in Samoa, Starmer said: “The Labour Party has volunteers, have gone over pretty much every election.
“They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying I think with other volunteers over there.
“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.”
Asked if it risked jeopardising his relationship with President Trump if the Republican defeats Harris on 5 November, Starmer said: “No. I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him and my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did, and we’re grateful for him for making the time in Florida for that dinner.
“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 their elections which are very close now.”
A statement on DonaldJTrump.com on Tuesday night claimed that “far-left” Labour has “inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric”.
The statement said that “The Trump-Vance Campaign has filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against the Harris-Walz Campaign and the Labour Party of the United Kingdom for illegal foreign campaign contributions and interference in our elections”.
The linked complaint addressed to the Federal Election Commission refers to reports by The Telegraph newspaper with regards to people associated with Labour going to the US to campaign for Kamala Harris.
It claims that reporting “surrounding the relationship between the Harris campaign and the Labour Party create[s] a reasonable inference that the Labour Party has made, and the Harris campaign has accepted, illegal foreign national contributions”.
The letter also refers to a report in the Washington Post which claims that advice has been offered between Labour Party strategists and Ms Harris’ campaign, and other reporting regarding meetings between senior Labour staff and the Democratic campaign.
Those referenced in the letter include Matthew Doyle, the No 10 director of communications, and Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.
A No 10 source said McSweeney and Doyle travelled to the Democratic National Convention in their own time in August, and pointed out that Starmer’s former pollster Deborah Mattinson, who reportedly met Harris’s campaign team to share campaign advice after Labour’s July election victory, does not work for the Government and was on a contract that expired when the party left opposition.
The complaint also references a social media post, which now appears to have been deleted, in which a Labour staff member appeared to have said there were “nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the US in the next few weeks” to swing states.
The letter refers to a “volunteer exemption” in US elections which means foreign nationals can volunteer, but the letter states “they may not be compensated, foreign nationals may not make expenditures, and they may not direct or control activities of US campaigns”.
It is understood that volunteer trips have been organised in a personal capacity and accommodation has been arranged by volunteers for the Democrats.
Volunteers are understood to have gone to the US in their own time.
