Trump campaign accuses UK Party of election 'interference'

FILE PHOTO

Donald Trump's campaign has accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party of "blatant foreign interference" in the US presidential election after its volunteers travelled to the United States to help campaign for Kamala Harris.

The campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, calling for an immediate investigation into what it called "apparent illegal foreign national contributions made by the Labour Party of the United Kingdom and accepted by Harris for President".

The complaint cited media reports and a now deleted LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, head of operations at Britain's Labour Party, who wrote that "nearly 100" current and former Labour party staff would be travelling to the US in the coming weeks to help elect Harris, the Democratic vice-president.

"Those searching for foreign interference in our elections need to look no further than [the] LinkedIn post," the letter of complaint said. "The interference is occurring in plain sight."

The centre-left Labour Party, which sees the US Democrats as its sister party, swept to power in July. Starmer has since sought to build ties with Trump, meeting him at his Trump Tower during a visit to New York in September.

Starmer, travelling on a flight to Samoa, told reporters he did not expect the complaint to strain relations with Trump if he wins the election on November 5, adding Labour volunteers had gone to pretty much every US election.

"They're doing it in their spare time, they're doing it as volunteers, they're staying I think with other volunteers over there," he said.

"That's what they've done in previous elections, that's what they're doing in this election and that's really straightforward."

More from International news

  • Thousands in US and Europe protest against Trump, Musk

    Thousands of protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S. on Saturday, part of some 1,200 demonstrations that were expected to form the largest single day of protest against President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk.

  • Two British MPs detained by Israel, British FM says

    Israel has detained two British members of parliament and refused entry to the officials who were visiting as part of a parliamentary delegation, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a statement late on Saturday.

  • Israeli attacks on Gaza killed 60 people in 24 hours

    Israeli occupation forces committed multiple massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, resulting in the killing of at least 60 Palestinians and the injury of 162 others, according to medical reports.

  • Trump fires National Security Agency director

    U.S. President Donald Trump fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency on Thursday, according to two officials familiar with the decision, and congressional Democrats denounced the removal of the nonpartisan official from a top security post.

News