Reps blame British Labour Party for 'blatant foreign interference' in US election

Former president Donald Trump's presidential campaign has accused the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party of interfering in the US presidential election after its campaign volunteers from Britain visited the US to assist the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

A complaint has been lodged with the Federal Election Commision in Washington by the the Trump campaign, against the Britishers for the "blatant foreign interference". The "apparent illegal foreign national contributions made by the Labour Party of the United Kingdom and accepted by Harris for President," is what the Republicans are calling it. 

The complaint cited media reports and a now deleted LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, head of operations at Britain's Labour Party, who wrote that "nearly 100" current and former Labour party staff would be travelling to the U.S. in the coming weeks to help elect Harris, the Democratic vice-president.

"Those searching for foreign interference in our elections need to look no further than [the] LinkedIn post," the letter of complaint said. "The interference is occurring in plain sight."

The centre-left Labour Party, which sees the U.S. Democrats as its sister party, swept to power in July. Starmer has since sought to build ties with Trump, meeting him at his Trump Tower during a visit to New York in September.

Starmer, travelling on a flight to Samoa, told reporters he did not expect the complaint to strain relations with Trump if he wins the election on Nov. 5, adding Labour volunteers had gone to pretty much every U.S. election.

"They're doing it in their spare time, they're doing it as volunteers, they're staying I think with other volunteers over there," he said.

"That's what they've done in previous elections, that's what they're doing in this election and that's really straightforward."