Donald Trump’s campaign has called for the Labour Party to be immediately investigated for “interfering” in the US Election.
Lawyers for the Republican candidate and former president’s campaign team have filed a complaint about “blatant foreign interference” in the upcoming US Presidential Election, due to be held in a fortnight.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party has been accused of making “illegal foreign national contributions” after reports that Labour staff members were asked if they were willing to travel to the US and “show those Yanks how to win elections”.
The complaint from Trump’s team includes a now-deleted LinkedIn post from Labour’s head of operations Sofia Patel, who posted that nearly 100 current and former staffers were heading to America to battleground states.
It also cites reports in the Telegraph that Ms Patel asked staffers “If anyone would be willing to travel to the US to ‘help our friends across the pond elect their first female president’”.
The Trump campaign also complained about reports that Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, director of communications, met with Kamala Harris’s campaign team.
A letter sent from the Trump campaign to the Federal Election Commission said: “In the wake of these strategic meetings, the Harris campaign has been following in the footsteps of then-Senator Joseph Biden by generously borrowing language and themes from prominent Labour Party officials.
“The Harris campaign appears to be mirroring much of Starmer’s language in its slogans and advertisements.
“The Labour Party attacked conservatives with slogans like ‘stop the chaos’ and ‘turn the page’ while Harris has used language like ‘we’re not going back’ and ‘it’s time to turn the page.’”
The Trump campaign later claims: “Foreign nationals are prohibited from ‘directly or indirectly’ 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 connection with a Federal, State, or local election’ or an independent expenditure in support of a U.S. candidate.”
A statement on DonaldJTrump.com on Tuesday night 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”.
Meanwhile, a Labour minister has insisted that staff campaigning for Kamala Harris in the US is “normal”.
Employment minister Alison McGovern told Sky News last week: "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 Labour Party has been contacted for comment.
