Keir Starmer’s Trump problem is getting worse

Keir Starmer thought he was going to have to spend the flight to Samoa for the Commonwealth summit talking about repatriations and UK aid. Instead, the Prime Minister is attempting to hose down a diplomatic spat with Donald Trump.

Team Trump have gone on the offensive over Labour staff flying to the US to campaign for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. This is a longstanding tradition within the Labour party, but it is being viewed differently now the party is in government. The Trump campaign has formally accused Labour of breaking US electoral law through ‘blatant foreign interference’ in the presidential election. In the letter, Trump’s team warn that when ‘representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them’ citing the 243 anniversary of the surrender of British forces at the Battle of Yorktown.

Ministers have been out in force this morning to insist there is nothing to see here, with Defence Secretary John Healey suggesting that the Trump campaign’s complaints about Labour are effectively an electoral stunt.