The United Kingdom’s Labour Party, which is currently in power, may be breaking election laws in the United States by sending 100 members to campaign in key battleground states on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee.
According to a now-deleted LinkedIn post, Sofia Patel, head of operations for the Labour Party, is organizing a delegation of current and former party members to travel to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to stump for Harris.
Conservative political commentator Robby Starbuck told The Michael Patrick Leahy Show that up until last year, Patel worked very closely with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a day-to-day basis. Though Starmer is a member of the Labour Party, it does not appear that he or members of his government are involved.
Starbuck also reported that Patel worked on the Hillary for America campaign for two months in field operations in 2016, while still employed by the Labour Party.
An election lawyer told the Telegraph that the Labour volunteers risk breaking election laws in the U.S., which could lead to the Harris campaign being sanctioned.
Under federal law, a volunteer’s travel expenses are considered a donation if they exceed $1,000. Volunteers were reportedly told to pay for their own flights and car rentals, while Democrat operatives would “sort out” their housing.
The current cost of a plane ticket from London to Washington, D.C., ranges from $500-$1,000, with additional expenses incurred to travel to battleground states.
“The cost of getting here by air, if it is less than $1,000 it would be okay, but anything more than that it becomes very problematic in my opinion,” Lawrence Otter, a constitutional and electoral law expert, told the Telegraph.
According to Otter, the Harris campaign could be hit with a “substantial” fine if the travel costs exceeded $1,000.
While foreign citizens can campaign in the U.S. if travel costs are under $1,000, they cannot be paid or hold any decision-making sway on party operatives, according to U.S. election law.
Trump ally and U.K. Parliament member Nigel Farage decried the Labour Party’s move.
“This is direct election interference by the governing Labour Party, and particularly stupid if Trump wins,” Farage, a Reform U.K. party member, said on Friday. “Who is paying for all of this?”
The former president’s stateside allies also slammed the foreign interference in U.S. elections.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk called the action “illegal” and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., railed against the involvement of “foreign nationals” in American elections.
“Please go back to the UK and fix your own mass immigration problems that are ruining your country,” Greene wrote in a post on X.