How dumb are Labour

Yes but I'm not sure I see the relevance here.

What I can’t understand is how British canvassers would help a candidate in the US.

If I were an undecided voter in the US (I wouldn’t be: I’d never vote for Trump), a spotty British activist telling me who to vote for in my own country would go down like a cup of cold sick. If I heard that the spotty British activists were stuffing envelopes or making placards I’d feel equally fucked off.

Wouldn’t matter which side they were ‘helping’.

Whichever way people want to spin it, it’s terrible PR, and a diplomatic snafu. All it has achieved is to rile a vindictive Trump, and now Musk.

Labour and their ‘volunteers’ should focus on governing and getting their own house in order.

Fucking idiots.

Well, good for you for wanting to improve on your previous posts on this thread.

They may well have paid for flights and housing though, even if they are currently claiming they didn't. @SukeyBenedict said a few posts back that they funded it when she went to campaign for Obama. Plus that message from the Head of Operations makes it sound pretty official.

You understand the concept of realpolitik, yes?

@ohdelay

Foreign nationals are banned from donating money or anything of value to US election campaigns.

They are allowed to “participate in campaign activities as an uncompensated volunteer”, according to the Federal Election Commission.

So provided that the Labour party in this case didn't pay for flights etc then there is no breach of regulations.

It has already been clearly explained on this thread @ohdelay. You clearly have no intention of reading these posts.

Sofia Patel • 3rd+ Head of Operations at The Labour Party
19h • 0

• Follow

..• I have nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the US in the next few weeks heading to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. I have 10 spots available for anyone available to head to the battleground state of North Carolina - we will sort your housing. Email me on
[email protected] if you're interested. Thanks!

It’s not new. Loads of us went over for the Obama campaign to ‘volunteer’ and the Labour Party paid for our flights & housing and daily stipend.

The Labour party has stated that the volunteers do it on own time, own expense, accommodation comes from volunteers.

They indeed pay it for themselves.

IF they pay for it themselves, yes. And yes, it does happen.

@ohdelay, I would be wasting my time as you obviously cannot be bothered to read any of the posts on this thread.

Ditto.
I voted Reform and I'm really happy that it's Trump who would most likely be the US President.
Oh, and I have a double citizenship, Czech and British.
Finally could vote in the last GE!

I just checked and Farage is registered under FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act: efile.fara.gov/docs/7470-Registration-Statement-20240927-1.pdf

He still can't participate in electioneering, but he can legally try to influence the sitting US gov't.

"former Tory Cabinet minister has been to the US to campaign for Democrat candidates because, he says, Donald Trump "flies in the face" of his conservative values.
Robert Buckland, who served as both justice secretary and Welsh secretary during his 14 years as a Tory MP, said he hopes Kamala Harris wins the November presidential election so the UK has a "stable ally and world power at a time when it is needed desperately".
The former Conservative MP for South Swindon wrote for The House about his recent trip to the US, where he knocked on doors in the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
He wrote: "It is my hope that the US avoids the chaos and uncertainty of a second Trump term, and that we have a stable and reliable ally and world power at a time when it is needed desperately.
"Like many Conservatives who traditionally identify with the GOP [Republican Party] in the traditions of Eisenhower and Reagan for example, supporting Trump flies in the face of those beliefs."

The Labour party have stated that the volunteers are not organised or funded by party

If the volunteers paid for themselves and were put up by Democratic supporters they haven't broken any laws. However much you might wish they had. Its legal and has been going on years - and Conservatives supporters are over there doing exactly the same thing.

It's complicated, but the Labour Party was planning to spend money getting them here and putting them up, feeding them, etc. That expenditure of foreign money to influence a campaign is illegal.

From The Times today -

"Conservative Party activists are understood to be in the US helping Trump’s campaign. And Trump has publicly been helped frequently by Nigel Farage, the Reform MP who has spent time in America campaigning for his friend."

It's more complicated then that. Foreigners can travel to the US and help as is the case here but there are tight restrictions on spending etc. Provided the rules are complied with it's OK.

To clarify, foreign volunteers can only knock on doors if they use no foreign money to do so. For instance, a foreigner living in the US can use their own money to knock on doors, but since the Labour Party was going to fly these people to the US and put them up, that is expenditure of foreign funds, making the whole thing illegal.

No.

Foreign nationals are banned from donating money or anything of value to US election campaigns. They are allowed to “participate in campaign activities as an uncompensated volunteer”, according to the Federal Election Commission.