Be under no illusions, Keir Starmer: a Trump presidency will be a harrowing nightmare | Andrew Rawnsley

The Republican contender is a clear and present danger to the UK's most vital national interests

It is a shocker that about 100 current and former Labour party staffers are hopping over the pond to campaign for Kamala Harris in swing states as the race for the White House enters the final, feverish furlong. Ameasly 100? Is that the best they could do? Labour will often manage to get more of its people knocking on doors and handing out leaflets for a humdrum British byelection in which nothing more is in play than who gets to be MP for Slumberborough. Much more is at stake in a US presidential contest that, with fewer than 10days to go, the polls have as a coin-toss.

Only Americans get to vote, but the world will have to cope with the consequences if Donald Trump again darkens the door of the White House. The fate of Ukraine, the future of Nato, the stability of the global economy, the response to the climate crisis, the cohesion of the democracies in the struggle with an axis of autocracies, and plausibly even the freedoms of America itself, all this is on the ballot in 2024. Given the vertiginous scale of the stakes, you might argue that it is remarkable how few Labour people are volunteering to help out their fellow progressives across the Atlantic.