London Playbook
By ANDREW MCDONALD
TRUMPED-UP
CHARGES: The government wanted to talk about the Commonwealth summit Keir
Starmer is still on his way to … or its shiny new defense pact … or even its
reform of the water industry. But instead, it’s still firefighting a diplomatic
row over Labour troops heading out to campaign against Donald Trump.
Recap: Keir
Starmer’s Labour Party was formally accused last night of breaking U.S.
electoral law through “blatant foreign interference.” The row centers around a
now-deleted LinkedIn post from Labour’s Head of Operations Sofia Patel, in
which she said she had nearly 100 “current (and former) party staff” ready to
campaign for Kamala Harris in several swing states — and advertising for more
to join. Foreign nationals are permitted to volunteer in U.S. campaigns as long
as they are not compensated.
Labour
insists … that where Labour activists are taking part in this campaigning,
“they do so at their own expense, in accordance with the laws and rules,” a
spokesperson said. The party insists too that they are not organizing or
funding anyone going over, and that accommodation is being provided by
volunteers.
Trying to
answer more questions: Labour also said the presence of top aides Morgan
McSweeney and Matthew Doyle — both named in the legal letter — at the
Democratic National Convention in August was normal, as the party sends a
delegation to every Democratic convention. McSweeney’s costs were met by the
Labour Party, but the argument is that neither he or Doyle were doing anything
to assist or advise the Harris campaign.
To be fair:
It’s also true to say this kind of sister-party campaigning has been going on
for years, and that there are numerous examples of high-profile Tories doing
the same thing. No one seems to care that Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex
Cole-Hamilton is over in Pennsylvania, either.
But the
problem is: Whether there’s anything to the Trump team’s audacious argument
that Patel’s offer to “sort your housing” amounts to a broader, foreign
national contribution for the Harris campaign rather than just volunteering —
opinions vary — the row has triggered allies of the thin-skinned dude who might
end up on the other side of the special relationship from January. And
Starmer’s own lieutenants have spent a precious day having to field questions
about it.
We’ll still
be special pals: “This happens in every election, it’s commonplace,” Defense
Secretary John Healey insisted after hailing a new defense pact with Germany
(more on that below). “It is very different to the determination of the Labour
government to work with whoever American people elect next month as their
president … that’s a relationship that exists with the political ups and downs
on both sides to be Atlantic, and we’re determined to make that work.”
Earlier on:
Starmer insisted he had established a “good relationship” with Trump when he
had dinner with him last month, in quotes from the plane covered by this
morning’s Playbook.
Elsewhere in
London: Jokingly asked at DPMQs by SNP chief Stephen Flynn if she’d join him in
applauding “brave Labour staff members” for campaigning against the Donald,
Deputy PM Angela Rayner stuck to the line of staff doing “what they want to do
in their own time with their own money.”
Reminder:
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his team have spent months and months trying
to woo Trump and his team.
Obviously:
Trump ally Nigel Farage — no stranger to a bit of campaigning in the U.S. — is
leading the attacks on Starmer this side of the Atlantic. Farage said Starmer
had “insulted the incoming Trump administration”. My POLITICO colleagues have
more from Nige.
Plus: A
couple of Tory MPs are poking their heads above the parapet to have a pop, with
one telling my colleague Noah Keate that Labour didn’t “grasp that they are in
government now, which demands a different standard. It’s student politics
stuff.” Another, the MP Neil Shastri-Hurst, told Noah he was “deeply
uncomfortable with the concept of the Labour Party organizing for their staff
to move en bloc to back one candidate over another in the U.S.” Labour denies
that charge, obvs.
So far:
That’s about where the backlash at the U.K.-side ends, and the row is unlikely
to hurt Labour much domestically — since Trump is still well unpopular in the
U.K. But Trump famously has quite the long memory when it comes to beefs and
spats.
Or maybe not
that long a memory: The now-moaning Trump campaign in 2016 actually sent emails
to British MPs begging for money, which, if any donated, would have counted as
… foreign election interference. Former SNP MP Stuart McDonald shared some of
those emails with Playbook PM.
In one email
… dated 21 June 2016, Trump promised to “personally match every dollar that
comes in within the next 48 hours up to $2 million.” He goes on: “Stuart, this
means any donation you make between $1 and $2,700 (the maximum allowable
contribution) will be matched, dollar-for-dollar.”
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