Bercow’s Trump snub ‘will harm the special relationship’

JOHN BERCOW must allow Donald Trump to address Parliament this summer or risk damaging Britain’s special relationship with the United States, ministers have said.

Preparations are under way for a state visit in June to coincide with the 75th anniversary commemorations of D-day but the Speaker of the Commons is refusing to extend the traditional courtesy of asking the visiting US president to address both Houses of Parliament.

Mr Bercow’s snub has angered US officials and become an embarrassment to the Government as it attempts to stage a state visit three years after it was first offered by the Prime Minister.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph,

Tobias Ellwood, the war veterans’ minister, says the UK should “leverage” Mr Trump’s state visit and give him the chance to formally address Parliament. He says: “D-day represents the bedrock of our international relationships. As we pay tribute to a generation of brave veterans who sacrificed their lives to defend our values, we can reaffirm our commitment to our allies and most crucially the US to defend those same values once again under threat.

“The special relationship matters. It is greater than any one individual. So we should leverage the US president’s state visit, including the opportunity formally to address Parliament.”

In 2017, Mr Bercow said he was “strongly opposed” to a presidential address, citing “opposition to racism and sexism” and described it as “an earned honour”, not an automatic right. Months later, Mr Bercow said the president had still not “earned that honour”.

Asked if he still held that view, a spokesman for the Speaker said: “We don’t have any comment.” A friend of Mr Bercow said they did not believe his attitude to Mr Trump had changed.

Sebastian Gorka, Mr Trump’s former deputy assistant in the White House, said Mr Bercow’s decision would be interpreted as a snub. He said: “The UK is meant to be the mother of democracy. The Speaker is slapping the face of British tradition. This is a totalitarian approach. You don’t limit speech you disagree with, you should actually engage in dialogue. To think that in the land of Magna Carta, Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain, this is how you deal with your most important partner in the world? This is an outrage.”

Lord Fowler, the Speaker of the House of Lords, last year criticised Mr Bercow for failing to consult him over whether Mr Trump should speak to Parliament ahead of his 2018 visit. Barack Obama addressed Parliament during a state visit in 2011. Others who have

been given the honour include Ronald Reagan, Xi Jinping of China and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

A senior minister said last night: “It is staggeringly arrogant and inappropriate for the Speaker to assume the right of veto on this. His job is to be a referee, not a judge, and for him to impose his own opinions on the visit of a president is corrupting the role he holds … to deny [Mr Trump] a platform is an absolute abuse of the Speaker’s position.”

The Telegraph understands that Buckingham Palace and No 10 have pencilled in Mr Trump’s state visit for early June to enable him to combine it with a visit to Normandy to honour the 6,600 Americans who died on D-day.

Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord who served as security minister, said: “The US and Britain saved Europe from a very dark time in its history and without America we would not have beaten the Nazis. Americans gave their lives on D-day and beyond, and it would be disgraceful not to allow President Trump to speak. He is the elected US President, he is representing the US in that context, they are a key part of Nato and our most important ally.”

Mr Trump is expected to stay at Buckingham Palace and will be based mainly in London. A state visit would almost certainly include a banquet at the Palace but Mr Trump is not expected to take part in a carriage procession in The Mall with the Queen, as it is still considered a security risk. Mr Obama did not do so, although Vladimir Putin rode in an open-top carriage with the Queen in 2016. A spokesman said no date had yet been set for a state visit.