Elon Musk has declared war on a campaign group founded by Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, just hours after Donald Trump accused the Labour Party of interfering in the US election in an extraordinary attack.
The tech billionaire accused the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of “violating US criminal statutes against foreign interference in elections”.
He said he and his team are “going after” the CCDH and their donors after a report from the Disinformation Chronicle newsletter claimed to have uncovered a strategy document from the group which included a plan to “Kill Musk’s Twitter”.
The report also claims the CCDH sought out meetings with Democratic senators in an attempt to lobby against Mr Musk’s ownership of X.
The organisation was founded by Morgan McSweeney, who was appointed as Sir Keir’s chief of staff earlier this month, but he hasn’t been involved since 2020.
On Tuesday, the Trump-Vance campaign filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing the party of illegal foreign campaign donations.
It came after scores of Labour activists including frontline politicians flew across the Atlantic to help campaign for Kamala Harris’s election on 5 November.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the claims, which follow reports of senior Labour officials meeting with Kamala Harris’ campaign, and Labour Party staffers volunteering on the ground for her campaign.
Asked if it was a mistake for senior staffers to have met with the Harris campaign, Sir Keir insisted any members of his party were in the US on an entirely voluntary basis, similar to previous elections.
“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, is what they’re doing in this election. And that’s really straightforward,” he told reporters as he travelled to Samoa for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.
Already sources in the Trump-Vance campaign have suggested that the intervention could be part of wider legal action if they lose to Kamala Harris on 5 November.
One Washington source at a rightwing think tank linked to the Trump campaign told The Independent: “It is an incredibly foolish move on the part of Labour, and hugely damaging to the special relationship.”
Others though are warning the Trump campaign that the tactic could backfire with Nigel Farage previously being a high profile cheerleader on the former President’s campaign trail.
The Trump campaign complaint cited a Daily Telegraph report suggesting 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.
However, there is no evidence that the Labour Party had made any financial contributions to the Democrat campaign. Previous campaigns have also seen Labour members go to help the Democrats in America and Tories help their sister party the Republicans.
Pressed about whether Labour officials’ involvement in the Harris-Waltz Democrat campaign could jeopardise his relationship with Trump if the ex-president wins re-election, Sir Keir said: “No.”
Sir Keir and met the former President for the first time last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, where the pair shared a two-hour dinner.
The prime minister said: “I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him, and my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did, and I was very grateful to him for making the time.”
Musk, meanwhile, has been locked in a long running feud with the CCDH, with the tech billionaire last year bringing a lawsuit against the campaign group, seeking to blame it for “tens of millions of dollars” in lost advertising revenue after the nonprofit reported on hate speech and misinformation on X.
But the case was dismissed by a federal judge in March 2024, with a CCDH spokesperson saying: “CCDH’s research held up a mirror to Elon Musk’s increasingly toxic and ugly platform, and rather than do the right thing and tackle the hate and lies disfiguring X, Mr Musk chose instead to sue the mirror.”
It has campaigned for improvements to online safety as well as having previously criticised multiple social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
The CCDH has been contacted for comment.