Politics
Starmer’s tiny gaffe has made him a sausage to fortune | Stewart Lee
Addressing the subject of Gaza on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer called for the “return of the sausages”, which was a surprise to those of us who didn’t know they were missing. Although, come to think of it, when was the last time you saw a big fat bulldog with a string of them in its mouth being chased down the high street by a butcher in a straw hat? And, when I was young in the 1970s, any drive to the West Country would see the car windscreen covered in splattered sausages, but these days its stays spotless. Make of that what you will.
I’m not thinking straight. I’ve got a virus that’s smothered my brain like psychedelic cement and I’m already a day late filing this. But at least I didn’t say “sausages” when I meant “hostages”. Starmer’s mistake was genuine though. When Boris Johnson talked, just once in June 2019, about his soon-forgotten passion for model buses, it was to game search algorithms away from those other buses, the ones he wrote massive Brexit lies on.
Watching sausage-gate live, I assumed Starmer wouldn’t find himself on the end of the antisemitism accusations levelled at those on the left of his now purged party’s last incarnation. No one could be that cynical. But it’s Wednesday morning now and on Twitter (currently X), Britain’s worst columnist, Allison Pearson, is in the Daily Telegraph, Britain’s worst newspaper, with the headline “Starmer’s sausages gaff shows he doesn’t care about Israel”. She finally, really did it!!! You maniac!!!!
It’s not for me to hypothesise how Pearson might have got from Starmer stumbling over the word hostage to the conclusion that he doesn’t care about Israel. Maybe Pearson is right. The problem is as I sit here at 10.45am on Wednesday I’m not going to pay £1 to access the horrible Daily Telegraph’s website to read her thoughts in full. That would be immoral. So I am going to go over the road to Sainsbury’s to steal today’s print edition which, on balance, is the lesser of two evils. See you in a sec.
11.05am. I’m back now, purloined paper in hand. A simple switcheroo at the self-checkout and I have my own pristine copy of Britain’s worst newspaper all to myself without having contributed unforgivably to its circulation figures or finances. And I’d have been back sooner if I hadn’t gone up to the woke delicatessen to get some woke chestnuts to make the woke kids a woke mushroom Wellington for tea. It was the least amoral option. Jeremy Bentham would approve.
But as I skim through the horrible broadsheet looking for Pearson’s column, I become so overwhelmed by the unrelenting unpleasantness, dishonesty and stupidity of it – “When the last pub calls last orders it will be time to die”, “Cussin’ Kamala wants to trash talk her way to the White House”, “Christine Hamilton: My facelift has knocked 20 years off me” – that I don’t want it near me and throw it straight in the woke recycling bin unread, where it might at least do some good. By rotting.
It’s noon now. I suddenly feel really weak again, either because of the exertion of stealing the Daily Telegraph and buying those woke nuts, or because the Daily Telegraph made contact with my skin, or because of my cement head virus. So I’m going to sleep for a bit.
Aaaaah! Where am I? What year is this? Is King Charles still on the throne? Is brat still a thing? It’s 2.11pm now and I realised in my sleep that even though the Labour party are in government they are still in opposition – to the newspapers, to Laura Kuenssberg’s gelded BBC news-eunuchs, and to the Tufton Street thinktanks that broadcasters still allow to steer the news agenda. Liberal media should hold Starmer to account – on the environment, on the Middle East, and on his antisemitic fixation on sausages.
But rightwing media, or the media, as it is known, needs to apply the same forensic lines of questioning to the last government’s industrial-scale theft of public money, as Labour attempts to recover it. And it should pursue the Tory figureheads’ wholesale diversion of public funding to their own pockets that it neglected, before starting on about Keir Starmer’s football ground security requirements.
Of course Starmer can’t go on the terraces. In 2014 I bought tickets for Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Hyde Park. Bliss! They opened with the half-hour fuzzfest Driftin’ Back, which meant I could lose myself, obliterate the ego, and forget who I was. Except an endless queue of people formed next to me for two and a half hours, taking me out of the moment every 30 seconds for selfies. All I experienced was an eternal rictus and cripplingly acute self-awareness. I appreciate this is part of the privilege of being a paid performer, but as the Horse burned behind me and I faced away from the stage and smiled and smiled and smiled again, I just wished I was dead.
So for the 2019 Bob Dylan/Neil Young Hyde Park twin gods double-header I bought our tickets as usual but begged a showbiz insider to let me and my kids into the music industry idiots’ area. Just so I could actually watch the show. A woman next to me held up Shazam on her phone to work out what song Dylan was singing. I said: “If you find out tell him.” But imagine Starmer in the stands. It would be 100 times worse and half the people there would hate him anyway.
And now I’m passing out again, too weak to make that woke Wellington. The kids will have to have an old simple family favourite. Hostages and mash.
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Stewart Lee’s Basic Lee is on the streaming service Now TV, and his 2025 tour Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf begins at London’s Leicester Square theatre this December
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Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Politics
No Labour wrongdoing in Kamala Harris campaign row, says ex-Tory minister | Labour
Labour did nothing wrong when party officials campaigned for Kamala Harris in the US election, a former Conservative minister has argued, after Downing Street faced fury from Donald Trump about the move.
Robert Buckland, who has also campaigned for Harris due to his distaste for Trump, said it appeared that Labour activists who knocked on doors had volunteered and covered their own expenses, which would not be a breach of US laws on overseas involvement in elections.
Trump’s campaign filed a legal complaint alleging that apparent efforts by Labour’s head of operations to organise volunteers amounted to “illegal foreign national contributions”, and hit out at what it called Keir Starmer’s “far-left” party.
After Starmer said he believed the row would not affect his relationship with Trump, Labour officials insisted that the party had no role in organising or funding staff who joined US campaigning efforts, and that such volunteering was by no means unusual.
The Trump legal letter, sent to the US Federal Election Commission in Washington, also complained about what it called “strategic meetings” at August’s Democratic national convention in Chicago between Harris’s team and Morgan McSweeney, now the prime minister’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s communications director.
Labour officials said that the pair were at the event only as observers. The party paid for McSweeney to attend, and Doyle’s costs were covered by the Progressive Policy Institute thinktank.
Buckland, a former justice secretary, who stepped down as an MP at the general election, said a since deleted LinkedIn post by Labour’s head of operations offering to arrange housing for 100 current and former party officials campaigning for the Democrats in swing states was “unfortunate”.
However, he told the Guardian he did not see any sign of wrongdoing. “It doesn’t look like it to me,” he said. “If these individuals are going under their own steam, paying for their own flights and doing their own thing, and their accommodation is either they’re staying with friends or they’re paying for it, there’s not a problem. But they’ve played into the Trump-Vance campaign hands, and that press release was the sort of politicking that you’re going to see this close to an election.”
Starmer, speaking to reporters travelling with him to the Commonwealth summit in Samoa, said such volunteering had happened at “pretty much every [US] election”. He said: “They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying I think with other volunteers over there.”
Asked if it risked jeopardising his relationship with Trump if he becomes president again, Starmer said: “No. I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him, and my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did.”
There was some muted criticism of the government from the Conservatives, although Oliver Dowden, the party’s deputy leader, did not raise it with Angela Rayner when she filled in for the absent Starmer at prime minister’s questions.
John Lamont, the shadow Scotland secretary, told BBC Radio 4 that Labour had created a “diplomatic car crash” that risked undermining relations with Trump.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, told GB News that the LinkedIn post seemed to show a “very clear breach of American electoral law” and he did not believe the Labour staffers had covered their own costs.
Farage attended the Republican national convention in Milwaukee in July. His entry in the MPs’ register of interests says the near £33,000 costs for him and a staffer were paid for by a Thai-based British businessman, Christopher Harborne. Farage listed the purpose of the trip as “to support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton [his constituency] on the world stage”.
The former prime minister Liz Truss also attended the event, although by then she was no longer an MP.
One Labour MP, Ruth Cadbury, used a holiday in September to campaign for Harris in New Hampshire, while no sitting Conservatives are known to have volunteered in the same way. Almost none have publicly endorsed Trump.
Buckland said this did not surprise him, calling Trump “not a Republican”. He said: “I think most Conservatives would identify themselves with Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower and George HW Bush, and even George W Bush, not this character.”
Politics
Reeves to announce major change to fiscal rules releasing £50bn for spending | Economics
Rachel Reeves will announce at the International Monetary Fund a plan to change Britain’s debt rules that will open the door for the government to spend up to £50bn extra on infrastructure projects.
After weeks of speculation, the chancellor will confirm at the fund’s annual meetings in Washington on Thursday that next week’s budget will include a new method for assessing the UK’s debt position – a move that will permit the Treasury to borrow more for long-term capital investment.
The change to the debt rule will be welcomed by the IMF, which says spending on UK infrastructure projects should be ringfenced as the government seeks to repair the damage to the public finances caused by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
Reeves will not specify while in Washington which of the various debt measures under consideration has been chosen, but the Guardian has been told by a senior government source that she will target public sector net financial liabilities (PSNFL).
This yardstick – which will replace public sector net debt – will take into account all the government’s financial assets and liabilities, including student loans and equity stakes in private companies, as well as funded pension schemes. This would give the chancellor room to increase borrowing for investment in long-term infrastructure
Labour inherited a set of fiscal rules from Reeves’s predecessor, Jeremy Hunt, dictating that day-to-day spending be met by revenues and that debt as a share of the economy must be falling in the fifth year of forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Hunt was only narrowly on course to meet his debt rule, by £8.9bn, after announcing large tax cuts despite spending pressures linked to Britain’s high debt servicing costs, ballooning demand on public services and weak economic growth.
Had Hunt adopted a PSNFL target in March, it would have added about £53bn to his borrowing headroom.
The Treasury has hinted that it would not initially take advantage of all the extra scope that a change to the debt rule would provide and would put “guard rails” in place to ensure investment projects deliver value for money. Sources said energy and transport projects would be a particular focus of capital spending in the budget.
Reeves will not go for the most radical rule change by adopting the public sector net worth (PSNW) measure, which also includes non-financial assets such as the road network, schools and hospitals, sources said.
The chancellor will say in the budget that the government’s main fiscal rule will be that day-to-day spending should be covered by tax receipts, with borrowing used only for capital spending. The Treasury says this will mean tax increases and spending cuts of up to £50bn.
Announcing the changes at the IMF will signal that the chancellor is keeping a traditionally conservative body on board with her plans, while aiming to win over the world’s most powerful finance ministers and central bankers.
The push to minimise any reaction in financial markets from a change in the fiscal rules stands in stark contrast to the approach of Liz Truss, who was directly challenged by the fund over her mini-budget in 2022.
A government source said that, while in Washington, the chancellor would explain why she thought a change to the debt rule was needed but that full details would be provided in the budget.
Speaking at a press conference to mark the latest release of the IMF’s Fiscal Monitor publication, Vítor Gaspar, director of its fiscal affairs department, said: “As in many other advanced economies, public investment [in the UK] as a percentage of GDP has been trending down.
“Challenges associated with the energy transition, new technologies, technological innovation and much else mean public investment is badly needed.
“The Fiscal Monitor emphasises that public investment should be protected in budgetary procedures that foster sound macroeconomic performance. The fact that that issue is very much at the centre of the debate in the UK right now is very much welcome.”
The IMF has steadily shifted its stance in recent years to favour government borrowing for investment in the right circumstances.
Politics
Include gardens in new rules for UK housebuilders, green groups urge | Access to green space
Requirements for gardens and the planting of trees must be included in Labour’s planned new rules for housebuilders, green groups have said.
The government is drawing up its future homes standard for new developments and it is not yet clear what requirements there will be for green space.
Developers are currently subject to biodiversity net gain rules that mean they have to ensure there are more spaces for nature after a development is built than before construction commenced.
Gardening groups including the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) are now asking for rights to green spaces to be enshrined in the plans to boost housebuilding. Prof Alistair Griffiths, the RHS director of science, pointed to a study based on UK Biobank data that showed people with gardens tend to have lower mortality risks, lead healthier lives and be less stressed.
“If you have more green space or a garden, you will do more physical exercise and be more likely to meet NHS guidelines for physical exercise. One of the greatest challenges the government faces in terms of the health service is levels of obesity, so this is significant,” he said.
Clare Matterson, the RHS director general, said that including gardens with the 1.5m homes that the government has pledged to build could save the NHS money.
“Let’s completely flip back around and make sure the outside space is actually thought about as much as the inside space. It has so many benefits, cost-saving benefits, particularly to the NHS,” she said.
She added that homes on the market should have a garden performance certificate, like they have for insulation, to indicate the quality of the soil, the amount of water it stores, and the biodiversity.
“When you buy a house you get an energy performance certificate, you have ratings for all the white goods in the kitchen. How about having a garden performance certificate?
“Let’s allow people to make some really important choices and give an incentive for people who are selling homes to create really good gardens.”
Developers often plan to include gardens and green space but overspend on the construction of the homes and put concrete where plants should be. Wayne Grills, the chief executive of the British Association of Landscape Industries, urged Labour to include gardens in its plans.
“We can actually be in there advising the contractors that are there at the same time that construction is going on, rather than being allowed to come back and dig up that same piece of environment,” he said.
“And the second thing for me [is] making sure that the budget is there. So we certainly see some really good, specified schemes, but very often the building is overspent over time and then landscaping that goes around it is cut back in many cases.”
Griffiths said that in the medium-term future, the UK would have a climate much like that of Barcelona now, and would need more planting.
“If you look at car parks and if you look at housing estates and developments in this country, there are no trees and there is no shade. This is not the case in France, Barcelona [north-eastern Spain] and other countries, they have spaces designed for urban cooling,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The government recognises the importance of building high-quality housing, and our planning reforms set clear expectations to ensure new developments meet the standards required.
“This includes taking into account the national model design code, which makes clear that open spaces, including private outdoor spaces, contribute to the quality of a place and to people’s quality of life.”
Politics
Labour donor Lord Alli committed minor breaches of Lords rules
Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli committed four minor breaches in his register of interests, a report has found.
The breaches are not related to previous revelations that Lord Alli paid for clothes for senior Labour figures, including Sir Keir Starmer, and allowed some of them to use his properties.
A House of Lords standards commissioner recommended Lord Alli apologise for failing to properly register his interests in a series of businesses and a charitable foundation.
In his apology letter to the Chair of the House of Lords Conduct Committee, the peer accepted the findings and vowed to “endeavour to follow the Code of Conduct at all times to prevent this from happening again”.
A complaint triggered an investigation into Labour donor Lord Alli, who was already facing scrutiny over his donations of clothes to senior politicians.
A report by the House of Lords Standards Commissioner found that Lord Alli improperly removed his controlling stake in Silvergate BP Bidco Limited, the media company behind CBeebies show Peter Rabbit, from the register.
Lord Alli sold part of the company to a Hollywood studio in 2019 and no longer benefited financially from his shares, but still maintained a controlling stake in the firm.
The commissioner found Lord Alli also failed to register that he was an unremunerated director of a firm in the British Virgin Islands tax-haven in time.
Lord Alli correctly registered his trusteeship of The Charlie Parsons Foundation but should also have included his position as an unremunerated director of the foundation, the commissioner found.
Lord Alli co-founded the charity, which focuses on investing in “new talent, new projects, and new business ideas” in the TV and entertainment industry.
In the report, the commissioner said: “While I consider each individual breach of the Code to be minor, I have found there to be four breaches in total, and have therefore recommended that Lord Alli write a letter of apology.”
In his letter to Conduct Committee chair Baroness Manningham-Buller, Lord Alli said: “I am writing to you today to offer my apology for my breach of conduct by not registering my interests correctly.
“I will endeavour to keep to the Code of Conduct at all times to avoid such circumstances again.”
Politics
From PMQs with love: Dowden says a fond farewell to his rivalry with Rayner | John Crace
Those we didn’t know we would miss. Those we didn’t know we had loved, even.
Westminster can be a brutal place. Somewhere ambition collides with reality. Where egos come to die. But just occasionally there is a crack in its tough facade. A crack that lets the light in. To a world where politicians show their softer side. Respect may be pushing it a bit far. So let’s call it a common humanity. A recognition that they are all in it together.
With Keir Starmer en route to Samoa for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, prime minister’s questions was handed over to the two deputies. Angela Rayner and Oliver Dowden. An occasion for everyone to be demob happy. When no one need try too hard. Where nothing really matters too much. Where power goes hand in hand with irresponsibility. A time for everyone to let their hair down.
Rayner is a known quantity at deputy PMQs. A force of nature. She can dish it out with the best of them, while retaining a smile on her face. Somehow she pulls off the impossible, by appearing not to take herself too seriously while actually taking herself very seriously indeed. No one gets away with taking any liberties with her. Cut away the laughter and you quickly get to steel. The Tory benches are littered with the bodies of MPs who have underestimated her. Make that the Labour benches as well.
It was Dowden who was the revelation at this PMQs. Three months in opposition has done Olive, as almost everyone calls him, nothing but good. In government he had to try just that bit too hard merely to stand still. Imagine being that guy on such a ship of fools. The one who couldn’t even keep up with Liz Truss or James Cleverly. Let alone Honest Bob Jenrick. The shame.
So Olive always used to struggle in the chamber. Terrified of being found out, his face used to look permanently pinched. It was uncomfortable watching him trying to live up to the person he clearly was never going to be. Every outing was just another dance with failure.
But now he is a liberated soul. There is no longer any artifice involved. Instead, he has embraced his own failure. Has owned the essential futility of his existence. The Dialectics of Being Oliver Dowden. By hurtling towards the very worst of himself – the bits from which he used to run – he somehow now manages to present the best of himself. This is Olive Unplugged. A man at one with his limitations. Who no longer cares if he’s a fraud. Deep down he knows he should never have been a politician. He should have been a maitre D at a Pizza Express. Not many politicians have that level of self-acceptance.
Dowden began by acknowledging this was the last time he would be speaking from the opposition frontbench. In less than a fortnight the Tories will have a new leader and neither Team KemiKaze nor Team Honest Bob will want him on voyage. He should take that as a badge of honour. It’s not his incompetence that’s in question but his sanity. He’s not quite mad enough for the Brave New World. So he’s off to languish on the backbenches for a while, before gently drifting into total obscurity.
Tell me, he asked Rayner. What is the definition of a working person? Angela smiled broadly. She was going to enjoy this long goodbye. First a reminder. The last time they had crossed swords in the Commons had been before he had masterminded the July election for Rishi Sunak. So a big thank you for that. In fact, if the Tories hadn’t already offered him a peerage, then she would be happy to do so herself. Olive couldn’t stop himself beaming. This was how politics ought to be. One promotion after the other till you reached peak uselessness. The Lords was his natural home.
Three times Olive tried to ask the same question. What was a working person? Was it a small business owner? The IFS and the chancellor had seemed to think so. Predictably Rayner never bothered to answer. Choosing instead to remind him of what the Tories had done to working people in the past 14 years. Crashing the economy. Countless tax rises. The Fuck Business attitude. Basically a selection of her own greatest hits. It’s going to be a while before she tires of them. The Labour benches loved it.
“Do you actually agree with yourself?” Dowden demanded. The idiot’s question. Because of course no politician ever agrees with themselves when it’s inconvenient. The truth is always mutable. It turned out that Angela had no more of an idea of what a working person was than Keir Starmer. More will be revealed in next week’s budget. Whoever escapes a tax increase will definitely be working people. But it may also turn out that some working people might suffer from false consciousness.
Then it all got surprisingly tender. As if the previous exchanges had all been just a game. Olive wanted to send one last billet-doux to his favourite sparring partner. He looked Angela in the eye. She was his Belle Dame Sans Merci. “I love you,” he mouthed. She would always be the One Who Got Away for him. The one who was out of his league. But that didn’t stop a man hoping.
Rayner relented. She gave him a heart sign. He would always treasure that. She had enjoyed the battle of the gingers, she said. She too would miss their exchanges. Though not quite as much as Dowden. There were other, more important, fish in the sea. But just for now she would indulge him. They could share their love of the monarchy together. She would give him that. Dowden beamed and settled down to laugh about carers with Jeremy Hunt.
The rest of the session was mere froth. Time and again, Labour MPs would lob her friendly questions only for Angela to talk about “14 years of failure”, “14 years of chaos”, “14 years of anything”. The closest we got to real politics was Stephen Flynn asking about Labour staffers campaigning in the US. Though everyone knew this was the very definition of a non-story.
It was all meaningless. Pure theatre. Deputy PMQs always is. But it had been rather nice while it lasted.
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Taking the Lead by John Crace is published by Little, Brown (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
Politics
Angela Rayner rebuffs jibe over Donald Trump’s election interference claim
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has dismissed an SNP jibe over the row over Labour Party volunteers campaigning in the US presidential election.
Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a complaint alleging Labour has broken US election rules on foreign interference by sending activists to campaign for his Democratic Party opponent, Kamala Harris.
Rayner told MPs that “people in their own time often go on campaigns”, adding that “it happens in all political parties”, during Prime Minister’s Questions.
She was standing in for Sir Keir Starmer, who has also played down the row while on his way to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which King Charles will open on Friday.
Rayner was responding to a question from Stephen Flynn, leader of the SNP at Westminster, who invited her to join him “in applauding the brave Labour staff members who travelled across the Atlantic to campaign against Donald Trump?”
The deputy PM replied: “People in their own time often go and campaign, and that’s what we’ve seen.
“It happens in all political parties, people go and campaign and they do what they want to do with their own time, with their own money.”
The row over campaigning was sparked by a now-deleted social media post from Labour’s head of operations, Sofia Patel, that she had about 100 current and former party staff heading to America before polling day.
The LinkedIn post said she had “10 spots available” for anyone willing to travel to North Carolina to campaign for Harris, adding “we will sort your housing”.
Foreign nationals are permitted to volunteers in political campaigns in the US as long as they are not compensated, according to Federal Election Commission rules.
Labour Party sources insist no one has done anything wrong, but there is concern about whether the row could impact the so-called “special relationship” between the UK and US should Trump win the election on 5 November.
The Trump campaign complaint to the Federal Election Commission flags that senior Labour Party staff attended the Democratic convention in Chicago and met Harris’s campaign team, naming Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, Downing Street director of communications.
Deborah Mattinson, Sir Keir’s former director of strategy, was also named as someone who travelled to Washington in September to brief Harris’s campaign on Labour’s election-winning approach.
It is understood from Labour officials that Labour met McSweeney’s costs, while Doyle was hosted by the Progressive Policy Institute, a US think tank.
But the officials said it would be wrong to suggest either man had advised or assisted the Harris campaign, adding that Labour sends a delegation to each Democratic convention.
Officials also pointed out that Mattinson left the Labour party staff after July’s general election in the UK.
Sir Keir briefly addressed the issue during his plane journey, telling reporters: “The Labour Party has volunteers, [they] have gone over pretty much every election.
“They’re doing it in their spare time. They’re doing it as volunteers. They’re staying I think with other volunteers over there.”
He denied the row would impact his relationship with Trump, reminding reporters the two had dinner together at Trump Tower in New York last month.
The Prime Minister’s deputy spokesperson stressed that the UK would always have “a deep and strong relationship with the US as our closest ally” whoever won the election.
She was not aware of any plans for government ministers to speak to Trump’s campaign team, but Sir Keir and Trump had discussed “the long-standing friendship” between the two nations during their New York dinner, she said.
“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,” she added.
Defence Secretary John Healey suggested the Trump campaign was “creating controversy” ahead of the presidential election.
However, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and Trump supporter, told the BBC he believed the wording of the LinkedIn post breached US election law, saying the rules were “very, very clear”.
Farage, who has travelled to the US to support his friend on multiple occasions, said: “The ad didn’t say you’ll be going in your own free time, didn’t say you’ll have to pay your own air fare, which at the moment, by the way, are very, very expensive, it said you’re going to have free accommodation.
“If you look at the wording of that advert there is little doubt that is against American election law.”
Filings with the US Department of Justice reveal that Farage himself has received help three times since his election as an MP in July from a PR firm based in Pennsylvania, including with hotel costs on a trip to the USA.
The company, Capital HQ LLC, is run by Alexandra Preate, who used to be an aide to Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon.
The filings show the firm paid more than $3,500 (£2,700) for Farage’s accommodation at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
It also helped with his “perception management”, as well as public relations, travel and logistics.
Capital HQ disclosed it had also assisted with his appearance on a Fox News business programme in July, in which he was outspoken in support of Trump’s election prospects.
It also spoke to him in August about an “upcoming trip to the United States”.
The filings were made under US laws requiring anyone who acts on behalf of foreign “principals” engaged in political activity, such as seeking to influence policy or public opinion there, to register with the federal government.
The Clacton MP has declared £32,836 he separately received from a donor for flights and accommodation for a visit to the United States in July.
Asked about this on BBC’s Politics Live programme, Farage said he “hopped on somebody else’s plane, they gave me a free lift”, adding that he had declared it and “didn’t campaign at all”.
“I went in a purely personal capacity to offer my support after the first assassination attempt… as a friend of his and the family”.
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