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. Yet with Trump now winning both the popular vote and the White House, the gamble clearly backfired. Indeed it is worth asking the question: did Labour’s additional boots on the ground actually hinder the Harris campaign?
Mr S has done some number-crunching and it does not make for happy reading. Compared with 2020, the Democrats lost votes in each of the four battleground states where Labour staffers were billeted. Some 187,000 fewer Virginians and 155,000 fewer Pennsylvanians voted for the Democrats this time around. Nevada dropped 56,000 blue voters while in North Carolina the Dems only shed 297 votes. Perhaps less Keirleaders were sent there eh?
Indeed, everywhere that Labour sent its activists, Trump made huge gains. He won an extra 28,000 in Nevada, 38,000 more in Virginia, 77,000 in Pennsylvania and a whopping 117,000 in North Carolina. Republicans might decry foreign election interference but with those numbers they ought to be begging Starmer to send his legions again in four years' time.
Talk about showing the Democrats how to win elections...
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