A state visit to Britain by President Donald Trump later this year will go ahead, the prime minister’s office said Monday, despite increasing calls for it to be canceled over his temporary ban on residents of seven majority-Muslim countries entering the U.S.
Furor over the travel ban has tarnished what British officials had considered a highly successful trip to Washington by Prime Minister Theresa May. She met Trump at the White House on Friday and announced that he had been invited to come to Britain later this year as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II.
May’s Downing St. office said Monday that “an invitation has been extended and accepted,” and the visit is still on.
No date has been announced for the state visit, which involves lavish pomp and ceremony, generally with a stay at Buckingham Palace.
The visit was hailed by government officials as a sign of the close trans-Atlantic relationship, which was also reflected in May’s invitation to meet Trump just a week after his inauguration.
But criticism of May’s wooing of Trump erupted when — only hours after the prime minister had left the White House — the president signed an executive order suspending all travel to the U.S. of citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Libya for 90 days. The order also bars all refugees entering the country for 120 days.
Britain’s three biggest opposition parties have all called for Trump’s state visit to be canceled and an online petition opposing the trip has more than 1 million signatures. Protests against the travel ban are planned Monday in London and other British cities.
Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures must be considered for a debate in Parliament, though not a binding vote.
Last year, Parliament debated whether to ban Trump, then a presidential candidate, from visiting Britain after a similar online petition was filed.
Trump’s travel ban sparked protests at airports across the U.S., along with expressions of condemnation and concern from around the world.
There was widespread confusion about whether the ban applied to dual nationals. Somali-born British Olympic champion runner Mo Farah said he feared it would prevent him returning to the U.S., where he lives.
Late Sunday, Britain’s Foreign Office said U.S. authorities had clarified that the ban didn’t apply to British citizens who are also nationals of one of the seven countries. Canada’s foreign minister said he had been told the same about Canadian dual nationals.
However, the website of the U.S. Embassy in London advised nationals of the seven countries — “including dual nationals” — not to book visa appointments, saying their applications would not be processed.
The U.S. Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The British exemption didn’t end the storm of opposition, with prominent members of May’s Conservative Party joining in calls for Trump’s visit to be scrapped.
Sayeeda Warsi, a former government minister and Conservative member of the House of Lords, said it was “sending out a wrong signal” to invite Trump, a leaders whose values “are not the same as British values.”
Conservative lawmaker Sarah Wollaston said Trump should not be invited to address both houses of Parliament, an honor given to many visiting foreign leaders.
She said that “those who wish to fawn over him” should do so elsewhere.
Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, a Trump ally, said “British politicians are sheer hypocrites” to oppose the travel ban as they had not objected when President Barack Obama imposed what Farage called a six-month ban on Iraqis.
In 2011 the U.S. imposed stringent checks on Iraqi refugees after two Iraqis were charged with terrorism offenses in Kentucky. It did not ban all travelers from Iraq, however.
(AP)
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7 Responses
You will be told that over a million people have signed the online petition but please don’t fall for this propaganda. Firstly it means another 60m did NOT sign the petition and would like trump to come. (The BBC headline should have been “60m don’t sign petition”).
Secondly, as is always the case with such petitions, huge numbers of people who signed are not even from the UK. There are also accusations of “bots” being involved to push up the numbers.
Thirdly, a huge number of petitioners would be Muslims. Hardly a surprise.
In addition to all of the above, a quick look at the talkbacks and message boards on the BBC shows very strong support for trump and his policies.
Don’t get sucked into the minority liberal left rabble rousers’ noisy protestations. We had all that nonsense at brexit. The vast majority stand with trump.
Re comment no. 1: You got a lot of things wrong, but I will limit myself to only 1 (out of laziness): The 60 million people who did not sign a petition objecting to the Trump visit are not necessarily in favor of the visit. and some of them have Downs syndrome or other mental impairments.
Be careful about the conclusions you jump to.
Its the British being politically correct and afraid to antagonise the extremists. Privately, even British Muslims – those that have been in the UK for over 20 years are fed up with the overrun of foreigners who despise the host country and make every attempt to disrespect law, order and civility.
As Yidden in a foreign country we also have to remember that our rights as civilians were kindly gifted to us but we should not abuse those rights by imposing our way of life over theirs. We are very much still in Golus and we should lead our lifes discreetly and unobtrusively.
Re huju – I would have hoped that you would not have taken the number 60m at face value rather it was there to make a point. Fact is that those who live here in the UK are well aware of the current public mood. There are over 2 million (conservative figure) Muslims in the UK, a great many of whom do regularly protest in favour of their brethren abroad at the drop off a hat and show an incredible lack of hakoras hatov. Fact.
Brexit beat the remain vote because the majority of people wanted a stop to immigration. Fact.
There’s a counter petition currently that the UK would welcome trump and adopt his immigration policy. Fact.
BBC message boards are overwhelming in favour of trump and his immigration policy (go see for yourself). Fact.
You can see the details of those who have signed the anti trump petition and there is a huge number from outside the UK (go check). Fact.
So actually I don’t think you were being lazy – just ill informed. There is a left wing elite (BBC amongst them) who would have you believe their liberal nonsense. The majority of Brits won’t have it anymore. (Fact…)
ComfortablyHeimish. I take your point, however, even you will agree that just because someone doesn’t sign a petition doesn’t mean they oppose it. Maybe they don’t care either way.
I’m glad you have so much time to post here, coz I haven’t had a good joke from you for ages.
Geordie 613- don’t worry- there’s more on the way 🙂
Thanks CH