London Eye

Source: BBC

A petition calling for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be barred from entering UK has passed 100,000, meaning MPs will have to consider debating the issue.

The petition went on Parliament’s e-petition website on Tuesday.

It was posted in response to Mr Trump’s call for a temporary halt on Muslims entering the United States.

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq says Donald Trump is not welcome in the UK following his anti-Muslim comments

Chancellor George Osborne criticised Mr Trump’s comments but rejected calls for him to be banned from the UK.

Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures is automatically considered for debate in Parliament.

Mr Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for next year’s US presidential election.

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Donald Trump: Free speech v hate speech

Could Donald Trump be banned from the UK?

• Labour home affairs spokesman Jack Dromey and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett have backed the petition to ban Trump from entering the country, with Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston saying the proposal merited “serious discussion”.
• The Home Office has powers to ban speakers from overseas coming to the UK under the “unacceptable behaviours or extremism exclusion policy”.
• Last year, Home Secretary Theresa May said she had excluded “hundreds” of people.
• People banned from entering the UK under the exclusion policy in recent years include leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church, Islamist preachers and Ku Klux Klan officials, and two anti-Muslim bloggers.

Home Secretary Theresa May can exclude an individual if she considers their presence is “not conducive to the public good or if their exclusion is justified on public policy grounds”.

Mr Osborne told the Commons that the remarks by Mr Trump flew in the face of America’s founding principles and “were not welcome”.

Downing Street said it was not aware of any plans for the billionaire businessman to visit, so any question of a ban on him coming to Britain was “hypothetical”.

The full text of the petition – entitled “Block Donald J Trump from UK entry” – reads: “The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK.

“If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the ‘unacceptable behaviour’ criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful.”

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