LONDON — Bernie Sanders’s supporters are accused of offering illegal support to the British Labour Party by running phone-banking sessions in American cities ahead of Thursday’s general election.
The allegations reveal the deep ties between socialist campaigners on either side of the Atlantic.
The Democratic Socialists of America have been calling British campaigners, working with them on how to register voters and encourage them to cast ballots for the Labour Party.
The group, which has endorsed and campaigns for Sanders, is working closely with Momentum, which styles itself a grassroots Labour Party movement and is closely allied with hardline socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn.
They admit making use of a strategy known as “distributed organizing,” which was used to great effect in 2016, allowing Sanders to deploy vast amounts of decentralized volunteer manpower.
But a senior Conservative Party official has written to the Electoral Commission, which regulates British elections, demanding action on “impermissible donations” in kind.
“Most political parties may have overseas branches of British expat electors who will volunteer, but this activity is by overseas corporate institutions with no connection to the U.K.,” said the letter.
“Such overseas corporate bodies are clearly impermissible donors, as they are not registered or carrying out business in the U.K. These are foreign donations, which are illegal.”
The letter references press reports of phone-banking sessions in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Louisville, and San Francisco.
Momentum’s press office failed to respond to requests for comment. But last month, it confirmed to the Guardian that it was working with Sanders supporters.
“This is part of a growing relationship between Bernie, DSA activists, and Momentum and Labour members abroad that has included exchanges between the nurses’ unions of the U.S. and the U.K. to campaign on public health in the U.S.,” said a spokesperson. “Many Labour International and Momentum members have been volunteers on Sanders’ campaign, and so the favor’s being returned.”
Both sides in British politics have made use of American expertise but usually carried out by strategists acting in a personal capacity.
David Axelrod, the former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, helped run Labour’s general election campaign in 2015.
This time around, Brett O’Donnell, who has groomed Republicans for years for presidential debates, helped Boris Johnson prepare for televised clashes.
In Britain, Momentum has emerged as a key player in Corbyn’s Labour Party. Its supporters say it is instrumental in connecting the party with its members, rebuilding it as a broader social movement, but detractors accuse it of intimidation and dragging the party to the hard-left.
It was formed in 2015 and claims to have 40,000 members.
Links to Sanders go back to at least 2016, when supporters of his presidential campaign traveled to the United Kingdom for training sessions to pass on lessons learned and help Momentum prepare for a snap election.
