British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Donald Trump’s legal complaint against his Labour Party over alleged election interference would not jeopardize their relationship if the former US president wins the election next month.
Trump accused the UK’s ruling Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” and illegal foreign campaign contributions to the campaign of US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s candidate, in a filing with the US Federal Election Commission earlier this week.
Starmer denied that the legal complaint would impact his relationship with Trump, who he met for the first time over a two-hour dinner in New York last month.
Photo: Reuters
“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,” Starmer said.
The filing by Trump’s campaign is unlikely to gain traction. Campaigns routinely meet with representatives of foreign governments and foreign nationals are permitted to serve as campaign volunteers as long as they are not compensated for their work, according to US campaign rules.
Trump’s complaint points to a social media post by a Labour Party official saying about 100 current and former staff members planned to travel to battleground states in the US to campaign on the vice president’s behalf.
A number of Starmer’s senior advisers including his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney attended the Democratic National Convention in August to impart their election-winning strategy to Harris’ team, Bloomberg reported last month.
The Democrats did not pay for his visit, Labour said.
Labour Party volunteers “have gone over pretty much every election,” Starmer told reporters on his way to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Samoa.
“They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying with other volunteers over there,” he said.
The Democrats and the UK’s Labour Party have long been ideological bedfellows, and for decades have exchanged advice and advisers, including Democratic strategist Bob Shrum who went on to advise former British prime minister Gordon Brown.
Shrum last month said that there had been “cross-pollination between progressive strategists in the US and the Labour Party” for the past 30 years.
Still, the flap offers Trump — who faced a special counsel investigation in his first term that ultimately concluded there was no evidence he had coordinated with Russian electoral interference activities, and whose recent partnership with billionaire Elon Musk has prompted campaign finance questions — the opportunity to go on offense on issues Democrats have used to criticize him.
Trump’s campaign said it believes “foreign nationals are exercising direction and control over elements of the Harris campaign” marked by “similarity in messaging” between the two campaigns.
British and American voters share concerns on immigration, housing and the economy, though debate over the right to an abortion — a key feature of the US campaign — has long been absent from British politics.
“The flailing Harris-Walz campaign is seeking foreign influence to boost its radical message — because they know they can’t win the American people,” Trump campaign comanager Susie Wiles said in a statement.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS