Did 100 Labour activists scare off 400k Democrat voters?

Was it Labour wot lost it? It was less than a month ago, as Kamala Harris appeared to be riding high, that dozens of bright-eyed British Starmtroopers began descending on America. In a now-infamous LinkedIn post, Sofia Patel, Labour’s head of operations, urged others to join them in North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. ‘I have nearly 100 Labour party staff (current and former) going to the US in the next few weeks,’ she boasted. ‘Let’s show the Democrats how to win elections!’

Fast forward three weeks and we know what happened next. The Trump campaign reacted in its usually understated way, threatening lawsuits, firing off bombastic threats and channelling the revolutionary spirit of Yorktown. ‘When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,’ screamed one such press release.

Having almost torched the Special Relationship, Labour might have thought that sending in the overseas division of Keir Starmer’s barmy army would be worth it in the event of a Harris victory.