More than a million people have signed a petition on the British parliament’s website calling for the cancellation of an invitation to Trump to make an official state visit to the U.K. Thousands of people are expected to attend a London rally on Monday to condemn a controversial entry ban introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The invitation was extended by British premier Theresa May during her Friday visit to the White House. Now the British government is under immense pressure from opposition parties, individual lawmakers, the public and the media about a proper response to the executive order signed by Trump in his first week in the White House.
Trump said he had identified seven Muslim-majority nations for the travel ban from a government report on terror-prone states prepared during the Barack Obama administration. The British petition does not call for Trump to be barred from the U.K. but does say any official state visit should be axed “because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty, the Queen”.
The petition also claimed Trump’s “well documented misogyny and vulgarity” disqualified him from meeting the Queen or other British royals. At 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in the U.K. parliament. A previous petition calling for a ban on Donald Trump from entering the U.K. attracted more than 500,000 signatures last year before the U.S. presidential election. However, it is unlikely the state visit invitation will be withdrawn.