Speaker threatens to bar Trump from U.K. Parliament

LONDON — While government lawyers argued before a U.S. appeals court that President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries should be reinstated, the president may be facing his own travel ban.

The details of Trump’s state visit to the U.K. are still to be pencilled in but following an extraordinary intervention Monday evening, it now seems unlikely that he will be extended the honour of addressing both houses of British Parliament.

Citing “racism” and “sexism,” the speaker of the House of Commons told lawmakers Monday that he was “strongly opposed” to the president addressing both houses of Parliament. President Barack Obama delivered a speech there in 2011, the first U.S. president to do so.

“I would not wish to issue an invitation to President Trump,” John Bercow said.

“We value our relationship with the United States. If a state visit takes place, that is way beyond and above the pay grade of the speaker. However, as far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism, and our support for equality before the law, and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced during her visit to the White House last month that Trump had accepted an invitation on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II for a full state visit later this year.

But she has come under pressure to revoke the offer after the backlash triggered by Trump’s travel ban. Later this month, lawmakers will debate cancelling the state visit after 1.8 million people signed a petition urging the British government to rescind the offer.

Bercow said he has a veto over a speech in Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament. And it would be a breach with tradition if Trump spoke in the Royal Gallery without his name on the invitation, he said.

“An address by a foreign leader to both houses of Parliament is not an automatic right, it is an earned honour,” Bercow said. “There are many precedents for state visits to take place to our country that do not include an address to both houses of Parliament.”

He added: “Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall. After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump, I am even more strongly opposed.”