Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team has formally accused Sir Keir Starmer’s “far-left” Labour Party of interfering in the US election in an extraordinary attack.
The Trump-Vance campaign filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing Labour of illegal foreign campaign donations.
It comes after scores of Labour activists including frontline politicians flew across the Atlantic to help campaign for Kamala Harris’s election on 5 November.
In a statement, the Trump campaign’s co-manager Susie Wiles claimed: “The far-left Labour Party has inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric.
“In recent weeks, they have recruited and sent party members to campaign for Kamala in critical battleground states, attempting to influence our election.”
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the claims, which follow reports of senior Labour officials meeting with Kamala Harris’ campaign, and Labour Party staffers volunteering on the ground for her campaign.
Asked if it was a mistake for senior staffers to have met with the Harris campaign, Sir Keir insisted any members of his party were in the US on an entirely voluntary basis, similar to previous elections.
“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, is what they’re doing in this election. And that’s really straightforward,” he told reporters as he travelled to Samoa for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.
The Trump campaign complaint cited a Daily Telegraph report suggesting Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, his director of communications, “attended a convention in Chicago and met with Ms Harris’s campaign team”.
The complaint also cited a now-deleted LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, head of operations at the Labour Party, who wrote that “nearly 100” current and former Labour Party staff would be travelling to the US to help elect Ms Harris.
Mr Trump’s lawyers argue such support amounts to “contributions” from foreign actors, in violation of US campaign finance laws.
However, there is no evidence that the Labour Party had made any financial contributions to the Democrat campaign. Previous campaigns have also seen Labour members go to help the Democrats in America and Tories help their sister party the Republicans.
Pressed about whether Labour officials’ involvement in the Harris-Waltz Democrat campaign could jeopardise his relationship with Mr Trump if the ex-president wins re-election, Sir Keir said: “No.”
Sir Keir and Mr Trump met for the first time last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, where he and the former Republican president shared a two-hour dinner.
The prime minister said: “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 I was very grateful to him for making the time.”
After describing the meeting as a “good, constructive discussion”, Sir Keir added: “Of course as prime minister of the United Kingdom, I will work with whoever the American people return as their president in the elections that are very close now.”
At the time, Mr Trump said of Sir Keir: “I am going to see him in about an hour so I have to be nice. I actually think he is very nice.
“He ran a great race, he did very well. It is very early but he is popular. It is very early but I will send your regards.”
Last week, British employment minister Alison McGovern made reference to Labour Party staff travelling to the US to help elect Ms Harris.
She told Sky News: “As far as I know, this is a voluntary thing and it’s about volunteers going and sharing their time.
“This is a normal thing that happens in elections. It is not the first time Labour staff have travelled to the US during presidential elections to campaign for the Democratic nominee.”
The FE is an independent agency of the US government that enforces campaign finance laws and oversees federal elections, according to its website.
Sir Keir, leader of the UK Labour Party and British prime minister, won the country’s general election in July earlier this year after more than a decade of the Conservative Party being in power.
Already Mr Trump’s biggest ally in the UK, Nigel Farage, has reacted to the row, posting on X (formerly Twitter) that it was “a terrible decision” by Starmer’s government and linking it in with a row over the UK handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius where it has an airbase with the US.
Reform UK’s chairman Zia Yusuf added: “If Trump wins, Starmer and his student politician Cabinet will have done more damage to the special relationship than any British government in our lifetimes.”
There is also a danger that the controversy could play into claims of the election being cheated if Mr Trump loses. He has always maintained that the 2020 election when he lost to Biden was cheated, which led to the 6 January riots in Washington DC.
