British lawmakers on Monday debated whether Donald Trump should be banned from Britain, after an online petition calling for him to be denied entry for making controversial anti-Muslim comments amassed more than 570,000 votes.
Advertisement
“But Monday, the Republican presidential candidate will enter unfamiliar territory, even by his larger-than-life standards, when members of the British Parliament hold a debate over a petition calling for the USA businessman-turned-politician to be banned from the country”.
Labour’s Paul Flynn will lead the debate, which is due to run for three hours in Westminster Hall.
Some 40,000 people have also signed a petition calling for Trump not to be barred, saying comments made on the US election trail do not concern Britain and citing possible complications to future US-British ties.
In fact, opposition lawmaker Paul Flynn, who’s leading the debate, thinks a ban could be counterproductive, as it could make a victim of Trump that could boost him in the eyes of Americans.
Listing the names of some of those who had been banned by the United Kingdom authorities in recent years he said the risk of a ban would be that it would increase the publicity surrounding Mr Trump “100-fold”.
Although MPs who spoke all agreed that Trump’s vitriol against immigrants had been out of bounds, most argued that banning him was not the best way to deal with the issue.
“And the reason I’d give him an open invitation to visit my constituency is I’d take him to the synagogue, I’d take him to the church, I’d take him to the mosques, I’d invite him for a curry – we are curry capital of Britain”.
If they are coming from outside the European Economic Area (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), she can ban them if she considers their presence in the United Kingdom to be non-conducive to the public good.
“I think if he came to visit our country, he would unite us all against him”, he said earlier.
But another Labour legislator, Tulip Siddique, supported a ban.
Siddiq’s calls were backed by fellow Muslim and Scottish National Party MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who called for the Home Office to be consistent and ban Trump on the ground of hate speech.
Conservative Sir Edward Leigh ( Gainsborough) said banning the Republican would only “play into Mr Trump’s hands”.
Mr Trump owns the luxury links course at the Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire, and says his investment there has “never been more important”.
Parliament should focus on tackling the real problems around security, terrorism and immigration, he continued, rather than “worrying about one man’s ego”.
The London MP added: “The legislation exists to protect the public and the people of Britain from individuals such as this”.
On the other, they were also told that a ban was necessary because the Republican frontrunner was, through his outspoken remarks, importing “violent ideology”.
Advertisement
Trump drew global outrage with his comments, which came after 14 people died in a shooting spree in California by two Muslims, who the Federal Bureau of Investigation said had been radicalized.
