The petition says a state visit by Donald Trump would cause embarrassment to the Queen.
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As of 9am local time, more than 960,000 people have already signed one petition on the United Kingdom government’s official website calling for the status of the visit to be downgraded.
But following Trump’s decision to ban seven Muslim countries and refugees from entering the United States, the number of signatories to the petition skyrocketed.
Parliament responds to any petition that has more than 10,000 signatures on its website, and anything with more than 100,000 signatures is debated in the House of Commons.
Reuters reports that after the petition hit one million signatures, Parliament scheduled a “three-hour emergency debate”.
The office of British Prime Minister Theresa May, however, said Monday that the visit is still on. In December 2015, when Trump was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, a petition on the United Kingdom government website sought to ban the candidate from entering Great Britain because of his use of hate speech.
Fury erupted across the globe on Friday as the Republican President signed an executive order to temporarily ban refugees, from mostly Muslim countries, from entering the US.
Downing Street said it would not be withdrawing its invitation to Trump as a state visit remains “substantially in the national interest”.
May has refused to condemn Trump’s Muslim ban, despite being directly asked to comment at a number of press conferences. The executive order bans Syrian refugees indefinitely, while people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen are unable to enter the country for the next 90 days.
Since becoming president, Trump has announced a temporary ban on arrivals from seven mostly Muslim countries and dialed back protections against climate change, both policies that run counter to British positions.
“Those are put to Buckingham Palace, which agrees to those visits and the invitation is extended on behalf of Her Majesty by the Government”.
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Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron hit out at the government over news the petition had been rejected, saying they were accommodating “this nasty misogynist all because they are desperate for a #Brexit trade deal”.
