A Commons ban on Trump ‘would insult US war dead’

JOHN BERCOW has been warned by the Lord Speaker that barring Donald Trump from addressing Parliament would be an insult to America’s wardead and undermine free speech.

Lord Fowler, the Speaker in the Lords, said that blocking the US president from addressing Parliament during the 75th anniversary D-day commemorations would be “unacceptable”.

Mr Trump is making his first state visit to Britain at the beginning of June but Mr Bercow is expected to block him from addressing Westminster Hall.

Lord Fowler, a former Tory Cabinet minister, said in a speech at Cambridge University last night: “I find it unacceptable that we should even consider turning our backs on the elected leader of a country to whom everyone in Britain owes so much.”

He praised US servicemen who had helped Britain defeat the Nazis. “Many, many were killed,” he said. “Without their effort we would not have had a free Parliament or have enjoyed free debate for the past 55 years, not to mention the freedom to demonstrate.

“I profoundly object to any attempt to ban the president when he is coming to Europe to mark the anniversary of the D-day landings when so many Americans were killed or wounded in defence of our freedom.”

Lord Fowler highlighted Mr Bercow’s decision to bar Mr Trump from addressing Parliament during his visit to the UK last year. He said: “I fear it panders to those elsewhere who seek to ban speakers because their views do not coincide with their own.

“It also seems to me that if our role inside Westminster is to uphold the rights of backbenchers and their right to free speech it would be ironic to apply a different standard to the elected president of the United States.”

Mr Trump is yet to make a formal request to address Parliament. The Sun reported that he is instead planning to make a speech to US service personnel stationed in the UK.