Trump accuses UK officials of election interference – politico

Labour Party activists have volunteered for the Democrats in battleground states, the former president’s campaign claims

The UK’s ruling Labour Party is interfering in the US presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign team has alleged in a complaint filed over alleged meddling by a foreign political force.

Labour Party officials have reportedly advised Democrats about strategies party ‘activists’ have worked on the ground in key swing states. The Labour Party insists such activities are legal because no money has been exchanged and no donations have been made to the Democrats.

The Trump campaign’s complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleges “blatant foreign interference” by Labour in the US election, in the form of “apparent illegal foreign national contributions” accepted by the Democrats and their candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Foreign nationals are prohibited from making “a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation,” in support of an American candidate, “directly or indirectly,” the complaint said, citing US law.

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Among the evidence cited by the campaign is a Washington Post report that “strategists linked to Britain’s Labour Party have been offering advice to Kamala Harris about how to earn back disaffected voters and run a winning campaign from the center-left.” 

Likewise, UK outlet The Telegraph has reported that Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as Starmer’s chief of communications, Matthew Doyle, attended the Democrats’ convention in Chicago and met with Harris’ campaign team.

Last week, Labour’s head of operations, Sofia Patel, posted on LinkedIn that she had “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,” advertising ten openings in North Carolina. Patel told potential applicants that “we will sort your housing.”

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Trump supporters, including Elon Musk, have pointed to Patel’s post as a clear violation of campaign laws. The post has since been deleted. Democrats insist that none of this is illegal because it does not involve financial contributions.

“This is a normal thing that happens in elections,” British Employment Minister Alison McGovern told Sky News last week, noting that Labour activists have campaigned for Democrats many times before.

Democrats have made unsubstantiated allegations that Russia ‘meddled’ in the 2016 presidential election and that Trump ‘colluded’ with the Kremlin, after his surprise victory over Hillary Clinton that year. Claims of ‘Russian collusion’ were used to oust and even imprison several Trump advisers and campaign aides, while hobbling his presidency and driving US-Russia relations to their worst point since the Cold War.