An online petition to prevent US President Donald Trump making an official state visit to the UK has generated enough signatures to warrant it being considered for debate in British parliament.
The petition was initially opened in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election in November 2016 but, as RT reports, following Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ executive order on Friday, it has garnered huge support online.
“Donald Trump should be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US Government, but he should not be invited to make an official State Visit because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen,” the petition states.
The petition also precludes President Trump from meeting with The Prince of Wales in any official capacity:
“Donald Trump’s well documented misogyny and vulgarity disqualifies him from being received by Her Majesty the Queen or the Prince of Wales. Therefore during the term of his presidency Donald Trump should not be invited to the United Kingdom for an official State Visit.”
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted the petition just after midday on January 29:
.@Theresa_May would be failing the British people if she does not postpone the state visit & condemn Trump’s actions in the clearest terms
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) January 29, 2017
And since then the petition’s signatories has exploded well beyond the 100,000 required to trigger a parliamentary debate.
Interestingly, as the petition grew larger, Bloomberg reports, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May broke her silence over President Donald Trump’s U.S. immigration ban on Muslim-majority nations, saying she does not agree with the approach.
Shortly after May returned to Britain from a visit to Turkey, her office acted to quell the backlash, saying Britain will “make representations” to the U.S. government if the ban hits British citizens.
“Immigration policy in the United States is a matter for the government of the United States, just the same as immigration policy for this country should be set by our government,” a spokesman said in a statement.
“But we do not agree with this kind of approach and it is not one we will be taking. We are studying this new executive order to see what it means and what the legal effects are, and in particular what the consequences are for U.K. nationals.”
A spokesperson for Number 10 said on Sunday that Trump would still be invited to visit the UK later this year as planned.
via http://ift.tt/2jsKQkp Tyler Durden