UKPM says relationship with Trump ‘good’ after claims of ‘meddling’ in US election | 2024 US Election News

Keir Starmer has dismissed allegations that Labor volunteers supporting Kamala Harris made ‘illegal’ foreign donations.

The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, directly responded to the accusations of Donald Trump’s team, Labor Party officials who want to interfere in the upcoming American elections.

Starmer said he has a “good relationship” with Trump on Wednesday, a day after the former US president’s campaign accused the Labor Party of “foreign interference” after volunteers traveled to the United States to help campaign for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

On his way to a meeting of Commonwealth leaders on the Pacific island of Samoa, Starmer told the media that his team had done nothing wrong and that the volunteers had paid for themselves.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull said Starmer and his ministers had “reacted strongly” to the “appalling” allegations.

“They are not so much denying the basic facts as denying that they have done anything wrong,” he said.

Trump’s team has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, DC, demanding an investigation into what it calls “illegal foreign contributions” from Labor to the Harris campaign.

The filing prompted media reports that Labor officials, including the Prime Minister’s new chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had traveled to the US to advise the Harris campaign in key states.

According to US law, immigrants can volunteer for election campaigns but cannot make financial contributions.

Trump’s team also posted a now-deleted LinkedIn letter by Human Resources Director Sofia Patel asking for volunteers to go to the North Carolina state, saying “We will fix your houses”.

Al Jazeera’s Hull said Patel’s statement would be given special scrutiny.

“The Labor Party has volunteers, they go through almost every election,” he said. “They do it in their spare time, they do it as volunteers,” Starmer said.

“That’s what they did in the last election, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.

He also denied suggestions that the clash could damage relations with his most important British ally if Trump beats Harris in November and secures a return to the White House.

Starmer met the former president last month over a two-hour dinner at his Trump Tower residence in New York.

“My purpose in doing that was to make sure that we build a good relationship between the two of us, and I really thanked him for making the time.”