Donald Trump row escalates as MPs revolt over plan to give him the honour of speech in Parliament

Government sources have ruled out a delay to Mr Trump's State visit - despite worries it will embarrass the Queen.
Visit controversy: US President Donald Trump
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A revolt erupted today against moves to allow President Trump to give an historic speech to MPs and Peers at Westminster Hall in Parliament.

A senior former Tory minister said it was seen as “out of the question” for such an honour to be granted to a president causing searing controversy in the UK.

At the same time, 73 Labour MPs signed an Early Day Motion in the Commons “deploring” Mr Trump’s recent actions and calling on the parliamentary authorities and the Government to withhold an invitation “for an address to be made in Westminster Hall or elsewhere in the Palace of Westminster by President Trump”.

Addresses to the combined Houses of Parliament are usually reserved for visiting statesmen and women who have made an indelible mark in international politics and who command cross-party support.

The greatest honour is a speech at 700-year-old Westminster Hall, the largest and most historic space in the Palace.

The last person to speak there was Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi in 2012.

The honour was also granted to Barack Obama in 2011 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Nelson Mandela filled the Great Hall in 1996.

Theresa May is facing pressure over the visit
PA

Other leading figures have addressed MPs and Peers in the Royal Gallery, including the Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian premier Narendra Modi in 2015. However the smaller venue is being refurbished at present.

The ex-minister said Mr Trump was too divisive a figure to fill the hall with an audience from all sides of politics. “Westminster Hall is out of the question and the Royal Gallery is not available,” he said.

“If President Trump is to make a speech it would be more appropriate to stage it at Lancaster House, which is outside parliament. You could then invite a wider audience that would include some MPs and peers as well as other people.”

Invitations to speak in Parliament are requested by the Government, which advises the Queen on State Visits. But they must be approved by the “three keyholders” of the Palace who are Commons Speaker John Bercow, the Lords Speaker Norman Fowler and by the Lord Great Chamberlain, Lord Cholmondeley.

Tooting MP Rosena Allin-Khan said she would boycott any Trump speech in parliament.

"Time and time again, President Trump has shown us he is sexist, Xenophobic, Islamophobic and homophobic. We should not be rolling out the red carpet for him."

Thousands of protesters march to Downing Street in Trump rally

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Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg backed a Trump speech, however. “President Trump certainly ought to be invited to address both Houses of Parliament but he may prefer the Royal Gallery which is where Ronald Reagan gave his address from,” he said.

And ex-minister Peter Bottomley said the president might learn from visiting parliament. “A set speech on the advice of the ambassador is far more likely to have him saying things he wants to say – rather than speaking off the cuff,” he said.

Government sources today ruled out a delay to Mr Trump’s State Visit - despite worries that it will embarrass the Queen.

The visit is currently scheduled for July, but the Prime Minister has wiggle room to postpone it because no firm date has been announced beyond “this year”. However a source said there was “no chance” of it being put back.

Former Whitehall mandarin Sir Richard Packer called for “a period of calm” and warned against a “hasty” change to the visit.

“Don’t do anything hasty, certainly do not withdraw the invitation, let things calm down a bit,” he told the Standard.

Former head of the Foreign Office Lord Ricketts called for the visit to be delayed so a scaled-down political trip by Mr Trump could take place first.

He told BBC Radio 4: “Perhaps the timing of a state visit can be put back a bit ... and in the meantime he should pay an early official visit, mainly centred on political talks with the Prime Minister.

“Once this official invitation has been issued, then, of course, there should be a state visit.

“But I think if you did it two or three years into the Trump presidency, the controversial early policy announcements would have been out of the way, things would have settled down.”

But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said the full state visit must go ahead within the next six months. He said the storm over the US “Muslim ban” would have been “resolved one way or another”.

He said: “The Queen is a consummate, professional Head of State, her staff will be professional with all foreign leaders, heads of state, that come to visit our country.”

Former Foreign Secretary William Hague, writing in the Telegraph, said the Queen was too professional to feel uncomfortable. “A Queen who has been asked over the decades to host tyrants such as Presidents Mobuto of Zaire and Ceausescu of Romania is going to take a brash billionaire from New York effortlessly in her stride.”

Mrs May is under growing pressure to say whether she was briefed by Donald Trump’s aides on his controversial travel ban during her summit on Friday.

Thousands of people protested against the ban in central London last night. More than 1.6 million people have signed a petition calling for the state visit to be scrapped.

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