Starmer embroiled in US election interference row after Trump campaign launches attack on PM: UK politics live

Asked about the Trump campaign’s accusations of interference in the US election, environment secretary Steve Reed told LBC: “It’s up to private individuals to choose how they use their own time and their own money.

“If people want to take holiday and go and campaign in another country that’s up to them. But none of this was organised by the Labour Party itself, it’s just individuals.

“And actually it’s perfectly normal. I’ve seen Americans here campaigning for different parties in our elections as well. It’s not unusual for people supporting a party in one country to then go and campaign for a sister party in another.”

There has been an ongoing joke in PMQs each week that Keir Starmer keeps on forgetting who he is now and calling Rishi Sunak “Prime Minister”.

But a slip of a tongue in parliamentary exchanges is very different to causing an international incident with the man who could shortly be president of Britain’s leading ally.

Essentially, in making a big fuss about sending hundreds of activists to help Kamala Harris in the US election, Labour has been acting as if it is still an opposition party with nothing to lose.

When you are the governing party there are greater consequences to your actions – as the freebies scandal has already proven. Now Starmer is at loggerheads with Donald Trump and if Trump wins that could have an impact on the special relationship for the next four years.

The Trump campaign’s six-page legal letter, addressed to the electoral commission’s acting general counsel, was published on the former US president’s website on Tuesday evening along with a statement from a campaign manager.

Both the letter and the website notice make parallels to the American Civil War, with the former president’s team stating “the British are coming!” and warning: “When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them.”

The letter also misspells Britain in the second sentence.

Our reporter Athena Stavrou has more details:

A Cabinet minister has suggested Donald Trump is lying over his claim that the Labour Party is interfering in the US election, saying it is “certainly not unusual for President Trump to use colourful language”.

The Trump complaint cited a now deleted LinkedIn post from the Labour Party’s head of operations, who wrote that “nearly 100” current and former Labour party staff would be travelling to the US to help elect Ms Harris.

The official posted on social media that she had “10 spots available” for anyone willing to travel to North Carolina to campaign for Kamala Harris, adding “we will sort your housing”.

But environment secretary Steve Reed told Times Radio that some “private individuals are choosing to spend their own money and their free time campaigning in the US during the election”.

He denied that the Labour Party has funded any of the campaigning, as well as denying that the party will organise the volunteers accommodation.

Asked, “Are you saying you haven’t recruited party members and therefore is the President lying?”, Mr Reed responded: “It’s certainly not unusual for President Trump to use colourful language. But as I said, the key point here is that our prime minister will work closely with whoever the American people elect as their President next month.”

Donald Trump’s campaign has accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of interfering in the US presidential election.

Filing a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) which accuses Labour of illegal foreign campaign donations, the campaign’s co-manager Susie Wiles claimed: “The far-left Labour Party has inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric.

“In recent weeks, they have recruited and sent party members to campaign for Kamala in critical battleground states, attempting to influence our election.”

The Trump campaign complaint cited a Daily Telegraph report that suggested Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, his director of communications, “attended a convention in Chicago and met with Ms Harris’s campaign team”.

The complaint also cited a now deleted LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, head of operations at the Labour party, who wrote that “nearly 100” current and former Labour party staff would be travelling to the US to help elect Ms Harris.

Mr Trump’s lawyers argue such support amounts to “contributions” from foreign actors, in violation of US campaign finance laws.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Good morning, we’ll be using this blog to bring you the latest updates on UK politics after Donald Trump’s campaign dramatically accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of interfering in the US election.