British government rejects call to ban Trump from meeting Queen

LONDON: The British government rejected a petition on Tuesday which argued that receiving the new president as a guest would embarrass the Queen.

The British foreign office recommended President Trump “should be extended the full courtesy of a state visit”, but lawmakers are still to debate the petition in parliament next Monday.

The petition, that Trump should which stated be allowed to enter Britain as the head of the US government but should not be invited for a state visit, which would involve a reception by Queen Elizabeth II, garnered 1.8 million signatures.

“Donald Trump’s well documented misogyny and vulgarity disqualifies him from being received by Her Majesty the Queen or the Prince of Wales,” the petition reads.

The British parliament is planning to debate the petition on February 20, alongside a counter-petition set up a few days later which argued that Trump should indeed make a state visit to Britain “because he is the leader of a free world and the UK is a country that supports free speech and does not believe people opposed to our point of view should be gagged.”

The government is obliged to respond to any petition which is signed more than 10,000 times.

The date of Trump’s first visit to Britain as president has not yet been finalised. — dpa