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Over 1 million sign petition to block President Trump’s U.K. state visit

The petition has already been rejected, but now people are signing up to protest the visit in person.

 

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Tech

Posted on Jan 30, 2017   Updated on May 25, 2021, 2:47 am CDT

Over a million Britons have signed a petition opposing President Donald Trump‘s state visit to the U.K., following the widespread protests against his travel ban targeting seven Muslim-majority nations.

It took less than a day for the petition to receive 1.2 million signatures, ten times the amount required to earn an official response from the U.K. government.

The petition states that the American president should be allowed to visit in his capacity as the head of the U.S. government, but should be blocked from meeting with the Queen. Its message was supported by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who shared the petition on Twitter.

Downing Street rejected the petition Monday morning, with a source telling the BBC that canceling Trump’s state visit would “undo everything” from Prime Minister Theresa May‘s diplomatic meeting with the president last week.

Responding to a question from London Times reporter Henry Zeffman, a Downing Street spokesperson attributed Trump’s state visit to the obscure “Committee for State Visits,” distancing the prime minister from the decision to invite him to the U.K.

Despite the lack of a confirmed date for Trump’s upcoming state visit, 10,000 people have already responded to a Facebook event announcing a protest against his presence in London.

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*First Published: Jan 30, 2017, 8:38 am CST