Over 1 million people have signed a petition, urging Britain to withdraw an invitation for US President Donald Trump to visit London and dine with Queen Elizabeth.
The petition, only for Britain’s citizens and UK residents, was started before British Prime Minister Theresa May extended the invitation for a “State” visit to Trump last Friday, which means he would come by invitation of Queen Elizabeth II. Trump is set to visit Britain later in the year.
But the campaign to prevent the visit to Britain gathered momentum after Trump put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travellers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries.
So far, the petition, which has a 6-month deadline that ends in May 2017, has already garnered over 1 million names.
“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 said.
The British lawmakers must consider the petition for debate, once a petition passes 100,000 signatures.
Lawmakers from the governing Conservative party and opposition Labour party have criticised Trump's move, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn saying that the state visit should be put on hold.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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