The Guardian effect: Labour ‘help’ could seal a Trump win

History teaches us that when the British Left tries to influence American politics, it goes wrong

The good news keeps rolling in for Donald J Trump. The polls are tightening in his favour, the betting markets suggest he’s winning, and Kamala Harris’s ongoing “media blitz” has turned into an exercise in self-immolation.
Best of all, perhaps, the British Labour Party has decided to send almost 100 of its young activists across the pond to canvas for Kamala in the crucial swing states of Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
It’s hard to think of anything more likely to put off American voters than a group of Left-wing limeys showing up, uninvited, in order to lecture the locals about the perils of authoritarianism.
Imagine the scene at the barn doors of Beaver County, Pennsylvania when Marcus and Indy, from Bethnal Green, come a’ knockin:
“Waddaya want?”
“Hey, yah, so we’re from the international Progressive Alliance and I’m here to tell you that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.”
“Suzanne, git ma AR-15…”
Team Trump is furious at Labour’s meddling. “Bloody outrageous,” says Sebastian Gorka, the burly former assistant in the president. “This is illegal,” says Elon Musk, Trump’s richest fan. “Direct election interference … and particularly stupid if Trump wins,” adds Nigel Farage.
That’s true to a point. If a different empowered foreign party – Viktor Orban’s Fidesz in Hungary, for instance – were to attempt to sway the election in favour of Trump, a huge international outcry would erupt, followed by a legal clampdown. But when the centre-Left does election interference, apparently it doesn’t count. The hypocrisy stinks. Donald Trump’s opponents are so convinced that they are “defending democracy” that they are more than willing to break all the usual democratic rules and conventions.
And it is, of course, dim-witted of Labour to make such a blatant bet on Team Harris at the very moment when Trump seems to be gaining the upper hand. But then David Lammy, a man who once called Trump “a racist KKK and Nazi  sympathiser” is our Foreign Secretary, so that’s hardly a surprise.
In the run up the British general election, when Joe Biden was struggling across the pond, Lammy sensibly endeavoured to build bridges with the Trump campaign. But then, when “Kamalamania” took hold over the summer, Labour returned eagerly to its default position of backing the Democrats at all costs. Several Labour MPs attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to pay homage to Harris and offer tips on progressive messaging in 2024.
That already feels an age away now, however. Nobody seriously thinks of Starmer’s Labour as a model for success any more. So Elon, Nigel et al can’t really be too concerned about the ability of a bunch of Labour kids to win hearts and minds in Nevada, say, or North Carolina. If it were legal, in fact, Musk should be offering to cover their travel expenses.
History teaches us that when the British left tries to influence American politics, it goes wrong. Let’s not forget “the Guardian Effect” in the presidential election of 2004. Britain’s leading Left-wing newspaper was so concerned about the re-election of George W Bush that it began a “pen pal” campaign, encouraging its readers to write to the wavering residents of Clark County in the key  battleground state of Ohio. But the people of Clark County were not won over, to put it mildly. “Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to not vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies,” read one reply. “If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels.”
“Real Americans aren’t interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions,” read another. Sure enough, Bush won Clark County, Ohio, and another four years in the White House. Perhaps, twenty years on, a new generation of transatlantic progressives can have a similar impact.