(AFP) – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday played down allegations made by Donald Trump’s team of “blatant foreign interference” by his Labour Party in the US election, saying it was normal for its volunteers to campaign. Starmer also insisted that he maintained “a good relationship” with Trump, having met him for talks last month.
The former president’s legal team filed a complaint to the US Federal Election Commission alleging the “British Labour Party made, and the (Kamala) Harris campaign accepted, illegal foreign national contributions”. The filing cited media reports that Labour officials, including the prime minister’s new chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, travelled to the United States to advise the Harris campaign. Trump’s team also submitted a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Labour director of operations Sofia Patel calling for volunteers to travel to North Carolina, saying “we will sort out your housing”. Foreign nationals are allowed to volunteer in US elections but may not be compensated.
Starmer told media travelling with him to a Commonwealth meeting on the Pacific island of Samoa that his party had done nothing wrong and that the volunteers had paid for themselves. “The Labour party has volunteers, who have gone over pretty much every election,” he said. “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.”
He also denied suggestions that it could damage relations with the UK’s most important ally should Republican party candidate Trump beat Democrat Harris and secure a return to the White House. Starmer said he had “established a good relationship” with the former president, having met him last month for a two-hour dinner at the former real estate tycoon’s Trump Tower residence in New York.
Adding to the row, Trump surrogate Elon Musk wrote on his X site on Tuesday that “this is war” after leaked documents from campaign group Center for Countering Digital Hate appeared to show that one of its objectives was to “kill Musk’s Twitter”, X’s former name. The campaign group and think-tank is led by a former Labour adviser and McSweeney is a former director.
© 2024 AFP
