Party officials are conferring with sister parties around the world for strategies on winning elections

President Joe Biden rolled out the red carpet for Rishi Sunak in Washington this month, but behind the scenes senior figures from Britain’s Labour party were also in town, covertly reinforcing links with leading Democrats.

The talks, which Labour tried to keep quiet to avoid embarrassing Biden during the UK prime minister’s visit, are part of an effort by party leader Sir Keir Starmer to learn from the Democrats and other centre-left parties on how to win an election.

One meeting saw Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s campaign director, discussing policy with Neera Tanden, director of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

Starmer’s media chief Matthew Doyle was among those attending talks in Washington in early June, which also involved officials from centre-left parties from Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

Some Starmer allies believe their party has a lot to learn from US Democrats as Labour tries to win back working class voters in the north of England and Midlands.

“With the amount of money they have in their system, they are way ahead of us in terms of targeting the rustbelt, the level of data they have — some of their polling and messaging techniques are way ahead,” said one member of Starmer’s shadow cabinet.

“They have done a lot on how you can talk about the green transition and link to jobs in a way that works in the rustbelt.”

The meetings in Washington centred on two days of events organised by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank, and its sister organisation CAP Action.

One Labour official briefed on the meetings said they were “all organised well before it was known that Sunak would be coming to Washington. It’s a coincidence.” The party declined to comment.

The high level talks are sign of a developing alignment between Biden’s Democrats and Starmer’s Labour party, with both party leaders facing elections next year.

US elections take place on November 5, 2024, while Sunak is expected to call a vote in either the early summer of next year or — more likely — the autumn. In the latter scenario, US and UK elections could run concurrently.

Last month Rachel Reeves, Labour’s economics spokesperson, held talks in Washington with Biden administration figures, including Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, and gave a speech warmly endorsing “Bidenomics”.

The Democrats and Labour have long considered themselves sister parties; in the 1990s Tony Blair and Bill Clinton developed “the third way”, a pragmatic centre-left doctrine.

Starmer has borrowed heavily from Biden’s emphasis on “family, community and security”, with obvious parallels between Democrat policies aimed at America’s post-industrial “blue wall” and Labour’s attempt to reconnect with its lost “red wall” heartlands in England.

The Labour leader has been briefed by John Anzalone, a pollster for Biden on how the Democrats won back white, male, working class voters. He has also used the phrase “buy, make and sell more in Britain”, echoing Biden’s “buy America” slogan.

David Lammy, shadow foreign secretary, prides himself on his contacts in Washington, while Ed Miliband, shadow climate change secretary, put together his “green prosperity plan” while Biden was drawing up his own package of state intervention, the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Ed has had time with senior pollsters who informed the Biden campaign and have done a lot of work on polling and message testing,” said one Miliband aide. “Our mantra of ‘bills, jobs, security, climate’ is very much inspired by conversations we’ve had with Biden’s people.”

Starmer’s team say they are also drawing heavily from the lessons of recent election victories of Australia’s Labor leader Anthony Albanese and the German centre-left SPD leader Olaf Scholz, both regarded — like Starmer — as solid but relatively uninspiring leaders.

Albanese was in London in May and met senior Labour personnel at the residence of the Australian high commissioner, including Starmer, Lammy, McSweeney and defence spokesman John Healey.

Australia’s Labor party and the British Labour party have recently fought elections that have pitted them against the Australian campaign strategist Sir Lynton Crosby, who has advised right-of-centre parties in both countries.

“The Conservatives and the Australian Liberal party mimic each other because of the Crosby link,” said one senior Labour UK figure, saying that immigration was a common theme in previous elections.

“But Keir also gets on with Scholz as well. The way the SPD ran on a campaign of ‘respect’ echoes a lot of his thinking,” the figure added.

In spite of the increasingly close relationship between Labour and the Democrats in the US, Sunak’s relations with Biden have also warmed over the course of four meetings in the past four months.

The US president endorsed Sunak’s efforts to take a leadership role in regulating artificial intelligence after a 40-minute one-to-one meeting at the White House, which took place without officials, followed by formal talks.

“We are looking to Great Britain to help lead a way through this,” Biden said at a press conference. “There is no country we have greater faith in to help negotiate our way through this.” He added: “We are in lockstep.”