Rayner insists Labour members in US using ‘their own time’ after Trump-Starmer election row: UK politics live
Angela Rayner has said that Labour staff campaigning in the United States do so “in their own time”, after Donald Trump’s campaign accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of interfering in the US election.
Filing a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) which accuses Labour of illegal foreign campaign donations, the campaign’s co-manager Susie Wiles claimed: “The far-left Labour Party has inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric.
“In recent weeks, they have recruited and sent party members to campaign for Kamala in critical battleground states, attempting to influence our election.”
The claims follow reports of senior Labour officials meeting with Kamala Harris’ campaign, and Labour Party staffers volunteering on the ground for her campaign.
Asked about the row as she deputised for the prime minister at PMQs on Wednesday, Ms Rayner said: “People in their own time often go and campaign. And that is what we have seen. It happens in all political parties.”
She added: “People go and campaign, and do what they want to do in their own time with their own money.”
Key Points
UK’s special relationship with US will always endure, No 10 says
The UK’s special relationship with the US has endured with “leaders of all political stripes” and always will, the Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson has said after Donald Trump’s presidential campaign claimed the Labour Party was interfering in the US election.
“We’ve always been steadfast allies and we will work with whoever the American people choose to be their president,” the spokesperson said.
She referred to Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with Mr Trump in September and said they discussed the importance of continuing to develop the “strong and enduring partnership” between the US and UK.
“It is a special relationship which has endured for over a century with leaders of all political stripes, and that will always be the case.”
Labour pressed to bring in smacking ban
A shadow communities minister has pressed Angela Rayner for legislation banning smacking so children can “enjoy unambiguous protection in law against violence”.
Conservative MP David Simmonds told the Commons: “Our child protection services have had to deal with a number of cases where parents and carers have argued that their fatal actions were lawful punishment.
“So I’d like to ask the deputy prime minister, will she bring forward legislation bringing the rest of our country into line with Scotland and Wales so that all children enjoy unambiguous protection in law against violence?”
Angela Rayner replied: “I think it’s a very important point that [Mr Simmonds] raises and I’ll make sure that the minister has a meeting with him, but the first job of any government is to protect the citizens, and that includes our children.
“And we’ll make sure we work across the House to deliver that.”
Labour urged to create NHS winter taskforce
Speaking at PMQs, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper called for the government to set up a winter task force to prepare for an NHS winter crisis and ensure there are enough carers to allow hospital patients to be discharged.
Ms Cooper said: “Will the deputy prime minister consider the Liberal Democrats’ idea of an NHS winter task force to winter-proof our NHS, end this cycle of the winter crisis and put to an end the scandal of hospital patients paying the price of a social care crisis left by the Conservatives?”
Angela Rayner said: “I share with her desire to ensure that care workers are given the respect and the importance that they deserve.
“They are critical, in my opinion, to solving the problems within our National Health Service, and it’s the Labour Party that will create a national care service, and we are launching our first-ever fair pay agreement for care professionals to boost recruitment and retention.
“We must get the NHS back on its feet after the disaster of the Conservatives, and the chancellor will have more to say in the Budget.”
Lib Dems warn against national insurance hike for care firms
Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper urged the government not to increase national insurance contributions for care firms ahead of the Budget next week, warning that doing so could affect up to 18,000 small care firms and make it harder for people to access care.
Angela Rayner replied: “Well again I won’t speculate on the Budget, not least with the chancellor sat at the side of me.
“But … I will reiterate what the chancellor has said and what the prime minister has said, this will be a budget that recognises working people of this country and the enterprise in this country has been hard hit by the 14 years of the Conservatives.
“We will rebuild Britain and we will grow our economy to pay for our public services.”
Rayner says Labour staff volunteering in US election do so ‘in their own time’
Asked by the SNP’s Stephen Flynn about the Trump campaign’s complaint against Labour, Angela Rayner told PMQs: “People in their own time often go and campaign. And that is what we have seen. It happens in all political parties.”
She added: “People go and campaign, and do what they want to do in their own time with their own money.”
Dowden and Rayner exchange jokes over final ‘battle of the gingers’
Noting that it will be their final PMQs exchange, Oliver Dowden has asked Angela Rayner to join him in sending the King their best wishes in his visit to Samoa, as he pressed her to confirm that Labour recognises the Commonwealth’s “unique role” and will commit to deepening these ties.
Drawing laughs as she replied: “I will miss our exchanges”, Ms Rayner added: “The battle of the gingers, the late nights voting. And in that spirit, I will agree … the King does a tremendous job and so did the late Queen.
“The Commonwealth is very important and that’s why the King and the prime minister at the moment are working together.”
Mr Dowden replied that “our Commonwealth family is brought together by historical and cultural ties”, joking: “Indeed, much like the pair of us.”
Dowden asks Rayner whether she agrees with her past remarks on employer NI hike
Citing Angela Rayner’s past remarks that “working people will pay when employers pass on the hike in national insurance”, Oliver Dowden pressed her to answer whether “she will at least agree with herself”.
Ms Rayner replied that she is incredibly proud of the Labour government’s new employment bill, and asked whether Mr Dowden would “like to apologise for the 70-year hike in taxes that he put on working people” and “the crashing of the economy”.
Angela Rayner references Boris Johnson’s ‘f*** business’ comment in PMQs retort
Oliver Dowden put to Angela Rayner that the IFS and Rachel Reeves have both said that raising employer national insurance would be a tax on working people.
The deputy PM replied: “I remember the party opposite and what they said to business – what was it? F to business? Whereas this party held an investment international investment summit last week which brought [£63bn] into our economy.
“We’re pro-business, pro-worker and getting on with fixing the mess that they left behind.”
Rayner repeats that it was working people who ‘paid the price of Tories crashing economy’
Oliver Dowden challenged Angela Rayner that she cannot define “working people” and asked whether the 5 million small business owners in the UK fit that definition.
The deputy PM replied: “I don’t know how the shadow deputy prime minister can stand there with a straight face when it was the small businesses – working people of this country – that paid the price of them crashing the economy, sending interest rates soaring.”
Mr Dowden claimed that “the whole House will have heard the deputy prime minister disregard five million hardworking small business owners.”
