DONALD TRUMP IS to be denied the opportunity to address the UK’s Parliament during his forthcoming British visit.
The speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, a former Conservative MP, said today that he is “strongly opposed” to Trump being allowed to speak in Parliament.
Bercow said he would be opposing Trump being allowed to speak in light of the US President’s executive order denying citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US, an order that has since been temporarily overturned by a US federal judge.
Bercow said that such a speech “is not an automatic right, it is an earned honour”.
“Before the imposition of the migrant ban I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall,” Bercow said this afternoon. The speaker is one of three officials who would have to approve the move.
After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump I am even more strongly opposed.
As far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons.
Bercow’s assertion is something of a spanner in the works for Prime Minister Theresa May, who had pursued an early audience with the new President, and had been at pains to stress the “special relationship” between the two countries when that meeting came to pass two weeks ago.
May had extended an invitation to Trump to visit the UK at the White House just hours before he announced his now infamous travel ban.
More than 1.8 million people have now signed a public petition calling on ministers to cancel the visit, which MPs are due to debate later this month.
With © – AFP, 2017
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