An online petition to stop Donald Trump’s state visit has been widely shared and reached over a million signatures over the past few days. The signatures started increasing rapidly after the US President’s travel ban on refugees and citizens from seven Muslim countries came into effect over the weekend.
On average, the petition is currently getting more than 600 signatures every minute.
Prime Minister Theresa May announced the visit on her recent US trip, hours before the ban was signed. The petition says: “Donald Trump should be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US Government, but he should not be invited to make an official State Visit because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen.”
In London, young people who signed the petition shared their impressions on the initiative and the implications of a potential visit:
However, dissenting opinions of people supporting the visit can also be found the city:
State visits are formal visits by a head of state to a foreign country, requiring an invitation from that country’s head of state, which in the UK is Queen Elizabeth, not the prime minister. The Queen usually receives one or two heads of state a year.
This morning, in the view of the confusion about who signed the invitation, Downing Street made a statement clearing up the situation.
LATEST: u10 issue another statement – “to be clear” – to clear up this morning’s confusion pic.twitter.com/dT45XMJNWq
— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) 30 January 2017
A Number 10 spokesperson has informed that the decision was taken by what has been referred as the Committee for State Visits. However, people on social media have shown their surprise. No one seems to know what this committee is and what is its main role. A freedom of information request has been raised on the website whatdotheyknow.com asking the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is supposedly, linked to the committee in charge of advise Prime Minister about future state visits.
So, Twitter. Does the “Committee for State Visits” actually exist? I’m still trying to find it, and I can’t.
— Neil ❄️ (@neilonanhst) 30 January 2017
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has urged the PM to postpone the visit.
Over 1 million people have signed. @theresa_may we will not back down, cancel state visit and condemn the #Muslimban https://t.co/ySphksOliV
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) 30 January 2017
In other aspects, several concentrations have been planned to protest against Donald Trump’s travel ban. The first one, tonight at 6pm outside Downing St.