Kamala Harris’ campaign offered free hotel accommodation to Labour staff who travelled to the US to campaign for the Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the election next week.
The Democratic campaign offered hotels, motels and AirBnBs to Labour Party staff who flew across the Atlantic to join Harris’ campaign trail in the days leading up to November 5, according to The Telegraph.
In response to the increasing criticism facing his party, the Prime Minister, along with other Labour officials, insisted that campaigners from his party would be staying at other volunteers’ homes in the US, rather than staying in accommodation covered by the Democrats.
Starmer, on his way to the Commonwealth summit in Samoa yesterday, told journalists: “They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers.
Starmer, on his way to the Commonwealth summit in Samoa yesterday, told journalists: “They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers
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“They’re staying, I think, with other volunteers over there.”
However, this new information has contributed to ongoing tensions between Keir Starmer and the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who accused the Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” in the US campaign.
The news has attracted a slew of criticism of the Labour and Democratic party alike.
Donald Trump’s campaign has issued a complaint to the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) – the independent body responsible for overseeing campaign finance regulation – which argued that the British political party’s involvement in the Democratic campaign was “illegal” and “another feeble attempt in a long line of anti-American election interference.”
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Additionally, the Republican’s deputy general counsel sent a letter to the FEC this week, in which he argued that Labour’s US involvement was a “far-Left” plot against the Trump campaign.
The letter detailed accusations directed towards senior officials within the Labour Party, who they alleged acted as advisers at the Democratic National Convention earlier this year in August.
Two more officials, executive director Hollie Ridley and senior aide Sheila Murphy, are said to have attended the trip to Chicago earlier this year, who had worked on the party’s official election campaign between May and July.
While UK Defence Secretary John Healey has claimed that the staff had flown to America “at their own expense, and if they’ve got accommodation out there, that will be also provided by volunteers”, Labour’s Head of Operations, Sofia Patel, had previously advertised the chance to fly over to America’s swing states to campaign for Harris to a few more current and former party staffers.
Two more officials are said to have attended the trip to Chicago earlier this year, who had worked on the party’s official election campaign between May and July
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Labour MP for Northampton North, Lucy Rigby, told GB News that she had attended the Democratic convention but had not done so to campaign.
She said: “These people are doing this as volunteers. It is as old as the Hills.”
Responding to the wave of criticism, a Labour spokesman said: “Labour sends a delegation to the Democratic convention each time, and Conservatives are often present at the Republican convention.
“It is common practice for campaigners of all political persuasions from around the world to volunteer in US elections.
“Where Labour activists take part, they do so at their own expense and in their own time, in accordance with the laws and rules.”