Donald Trump bashing is hogging the headlines in UK. UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s state visit invitation to US has provoked controversy, but recent data from YouGov shows that almost half the Britons (49%) hope that Donald Trump’s visit will go ahead as planned. Only 36% would prefer it cancelled.
Two opposing petitions reveal interesting geographical facts. The first asks that President Trump be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US Government, but he should not be invited on an official State Visit as his “misogyny and vulgarity” would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen. This has acquired 1,825,754 signatures, mostly concentrated in London and the university towns of Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Brighton and Edinburgh.
The second petition pleads that President Trump should be invited to make an official State Visit as the leader of the free world and UK is a country that supports free speech and does not believe that people who oppose our point of view should be gagged. This has also passed the threshold for a government debate with 268,762 signatures. This petition has fewer signatures, but a fairly even nationwide coverage of petitioners. The British public loves to have a say in the workings of Parliament, but only four petitions out of 19,018 petitions (0.01%) have ever influenced policy. Parliament will debate both petitions on 20 February.
According to YouGov, UKIP (81%) and Conservative (76%) voters are most likely to support the President’s visit, while those who voted Labour in 2015 (51%) and young people (53%) are the groups where a majority want to cancel the trip. Men are strongly in favour of the visit (60% versus 29%), while women are more evenly split on the matter, with 39% in favour and 43% against.
President Trump’s temporary executive order or so called “migrant ban” has caused consternation in London’s liberal and Labour circles. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, asked Mrs May in Prime Minister’s Questions if she had known in advance of the policy. May replied the policy was “divisive and wrong”, but that all had notice of the travel restrictions intended, as Trump had campaigned for this and it was not the job of the British Government to take to the streets in protest.
The Foreign Office issued a four-point clarification about how British nationals were not very affected; the executive order makes no difference to any British passport holder, irrespective of their country of birth or whether they hold another passport. Only dual nationals coming from one of the seven listed countries are affected: for example, a UK-Libya dual national coming from Libya to the US might have extra checks.
This week, Parliament had a well-attended and vociferous four hours of debate on US immigration policy. Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, explained the executive order was intended to last only for 90 days, until the US system has added new security precautions and that on defence, intelligence and security UK and US work more closely than any other two countries in the world. The special relationship is overwhelmingly to UK’s benefit, but where UK has differences with the US, UK will not hesitate to express them. The message was whether the UK approves or not, the immigration policy of the US is a matter for the Government of the United States and American democracy.
However MPs continued to harangue Johnson about an increased threat to terrorism as a result, rejecting genuine refugees was un-humanitarian and the risk of branding Muslims that would introduce Islamophobia. Johnson said it was open to all to come forward with fresh expressions of outrage about the presidential executive order, but May’s government has made it clear to the US that it disapproved of their policy of discrimination on the grounds of nationality, however it was in British national interest to work with the US as friends and partners. The conclusion of the lengthy debate was unanimous that the “House has considered the need for repeal of President Trump’s discriminatory, divisive and counterproductive ban on entry to the United States for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries and the indefinite ban placed on Syrian refugees.”