Trump campaign accuses UK’s Labour Party of election ‘interference’

Donald Trump’s campaign has accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of ‘blatant foreign interference’ in the US presidential election. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Updated 23 October 2024
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Trump campaign accuses UK’s Labour Party of election ‘interference’

  • Now-deleted LinkedIn post from Labour Party’s Sofia Patel, said ‘nearly 100’ current and former Labour party staff would be traveling to the US in the coming weeks to help elect Kamala Harris

LONDON: Donald Trump’s campaign has accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” in the US presidential election after its volunteers traveled to the United States to help campaign for Kamala Harris.
The campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, calling for an immediate investigation into what it called “apparent illegal foreign national contributions made by the Labour Party of the United Kingdom and accepted by Harris for President.”
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 traveling to the US 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 LinkedIn post,” the letter of complaint said. “The interference is occurring in plain sight.”
The center-left Labour Party, which sees the US 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, traveling 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 US 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.”


Greenland should hold talks with the US without Denmark, opposition leader says

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Greenland should hold talks with the US without Denmark, opposition leader says

COPENHAGEN: Greenland should hold direct talks with ​the US government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader told Reuters, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to President Donald Trump’s renewed push to bring it under US control.
Trump has recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland, reviving an idea he first floated in 2019 during his first term in office.
Greenland is strategically located between Europe and North America, making it a critical site for the US ballistic missile defense system. Its rich mineral resources also fit Washington’s goal of reducing dependence on China.
The ‌island is ‌an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It has ‌its ⁠own ​parliament ‌and government, but Copenhagen retains authority over foreign affairs and defense.
“We encourage our current (Greenlandic) government actually to have a dialogue with the US government without Denmark,” said Pele Broberg, the leader of Naleraq, the largest opposition party and the most prominent political voice for Greenland’s independence.
“Because Denmark is antagonizing both Greenland and the US with their mediation.”
Naleraq, which strongly advocates a rapid move to full independence, doubled its seats to eight in last year’s election, winning 25 percent of the ⁠vote in the nation of just 57,000.
Although excluded from the governing coalition, the party has said it wants a ‌defense agreement with Washington and could pursue a “free association” ‍arrangement — under which Greenland would receive US ‍support and protection in exchange for military rights, without becoming a US territory.
All Greenlandic ‍parties want independence but differ on how, and when, to achieve it.

GOVERNMENT SAYS DIRECT TALKS NOT POSSIBLE
Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said Greenland could not conduct direct talks with the US without Denmark because it is not legally allowed to do so.
“We must respect the law, and we ​have rules for how to resolve issues in the Kingdom,” she told Sermitsiaq daily late on Wednesday.
The Danish and Greenlandic governments did not immediately reply ⁠to requests for comment on Broberg’s remarks.
The comments come ahead of a planned meeting between the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio next week to address tensions between NATO allies.
Motzfeldt said it was important to set Greenland’s relationship with Washington on a steady course.
“My greatest hope is that the meeting will lead to a normalization of our relationship,” she told Sermitsiaq.
Rubio appears not to favor a military operation, according to France’s foreign minister. But others in the Trump administration say the option is on the table.
“We are going to make sure we defend America’s interests,” US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News in an interview aired late on Wednesday. “And I think the president is ‌willing to go as far as he has to make sure he does that.”
(Reporting by Tom Little and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen; additional reporting by Soren Jeppesen; writing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing ‌by Ros Russell)