Labour apparatchiks hover in Chicago, trying to build a new progressive alliance

HE baggage carousels at O'Hare airport for flights from the UK this week had some intriguing folk waiting luggage.

- Anne McElvoy

The Democratic Party's farewell to Joe Biden as president and coronation of Kamala Harris as candidate in Chicago has attracted key Labour figures observing the transition.

Jonathan Ashworth, the former shadow frontbencher who fell to the shock defeat of the July election due to a surge of pro-Gaza activism in his Leicester South constituency and now co-runs the Labour Together think tank, arrived with party general secretary David Evans.

Communications boss Matthew Doyle is due to attend Harris's introductory speech on Thursday and even Morgan McSweeney, the strategist Sir Keir Starmer trusts on thorny issues - like the longer-term remedy for the summer riots is taking a break from Gradgrind British issues to assess the outlook for the Democrats under a new leader.

The point of this (besides a bit of Stateside political tourism) is to study how parties in comparable democracies get elected a second time. It is one of the reasons Labour has invested heavily in befriending Olaf Scholz, the German leader, who is grimly holding together a coalition government - but also says he intends to run again for the Chancellorship.