By Enyichukwu Enemanna
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denied claims of “blatant foreign interference” made by Republican Party presidential candidate, Donald Trump against his Labour Party in the upcoming US election, saying campaign by volunteers is not an interference.
Starmer also insisted that he maintained “a good relationship” with Trump, having met him for talks last month.
A legal team of the former President of United States had filed a complaint before the US Federal Election Commission, alleging the “British Labour Party made, and the [Kamala] Harris campaign accepted, illegal foreign national contributions.”
The legal team cited media reports that Labour officials, including the Prime Minister’s new chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, traveled to the United States to advise the Harris campaign.
Trump’s team also submitted a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Labour director of operations Sofia Patel, calling for volunteers to travel to North Carolina, saying “we will sort out your housing.”
Starmer in response however told journalists on his way to a Commonwealth meeting on the Pacific island of Samoa that his party had done nothing wrong, and that the volunteers had paid for themselves.
“The Labour party has volunteers, who have gone over pretty much every election,” he said.
“They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying, I think, with other volunteers over there.”
“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.”
He also denied suggestions that it could damage relations with Britain’s most important ally should Republican party candidate Trump beat Democrat Harris and secure a return to the White House.
Starmer said he had “established a good relationship” with the former president, having met him last month for a two-hour dinner at the former real estate tycoon’s Trump Tower residence in New York.
Heritage Times HT reports that on November 5, Americans will choose their next President between former President Trump and his Democrat rival and Vice President, Kamala Harris.
The candidates and their surrogates are hitting the campaign trail, focusing on swing states.
Harris has in past couple days been campaigning with former President Barack Obama. They have touched Atlanta, Georgia, a state the Democrats narrowly won in 2020.
Trump is also getting backing from prominent individuals, including the CEO of X, Elon Musk, who on Tuesday wrote on his X site that “this is war” after leaked documents from campaign group Center for Countering Digital Hate appeared to show that one of its objectives was to “kill Musk’s Twitter.”
