The first time most of us likely remember hearing those words (The British are Coming) was probably in a Revolutionary War-era textbook. Of course, that worked out fairly well for the American patriots because it gave them a heads-up that the Tories were preparing an attack. What we're seeing this month is decidedly different. The British Labor Party is sending roughly 100 former and current staffers to promote Kamala Harris in the swing states in the northeast. But can they actually do that? (Washington Times)

The British are coming.

The Labor Party is organizing a visit by 100 former and current staff to boost Vice President Kamala Harris in battleground states, an unusual effort by British liberals to bolster their political allies across the pond.

Sofia Patel, the Labor Party’s head of operations, said the staffers will travel to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia in the “next few weeks.”

Arun Pudir called this out for precisely what it appears to be: blatant election interference.

The UK Labour Party is sending over 100 staff to campaign for Kamala Harris in US battleground states—funded by Labour Party.

This is blatant election interference by a foreign nation. Imagine the outrage if Russia did this for Trump! pic.twitter.com/j1bp3Kg4Kw

— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) October 17, 2024

To understand why this situation is rather unique, we need  to know a little bit more about British political party structure. The Labor Party is the liberal party over there. They are matched against the Conservative Party, also known as the Tories. They are the British equivalent of the GOP.

To be clear, foreign officials weigh in on American elections all the time. Other world leaders do so regularly because American presidents have an outsized voice on the world stage so our elections are always something of a spectacle. But it has been traditionally been understood that this was their personal opinion, not official national policy. This, however, appears to be a case of one of Great Britain's two major parties sending officials to the United States to campaign on behalf of one candidate over the other, That's not supposed to be how this works. Or at least it didn't used to be.