United Kingdom – It was announced by the UK government that on January 18, the British Parliament will debate whether the U.S presidential contender Donald Trump should be blocked or not from entering the UK. The debate was announced after two online petitions became relevant in The House of Common Petitions from the Parliament.
The first petition was made by British who seek to prohibit the entry of Donald Trump to the UK and it was signed by more than 560,000 people. Later another petition was signed by more than 39,000 people, who claim the UK should not ban people for their opinions on domestic actions in a U.S political race that doesn’t concern them, as they wrote.
Suzanne Kelly, a Scottish who started the online petition, wrote that the United Kingdom has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech and the same principles should be applied to Donald Trump.
It is known that in 2013 the UK banned Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer who were founders of the anti-Muslim group, Stop Islamization of America. Also other people such as Safwat Hegazi, an Egyptian preacher that is against Israeli Jews, and Fred Phelps & Shirley Phelps, founders of the Westboro Baptist Church in the U.S, which protest the funerals of homosexuals, were banned.
“The Home Secretary has said that coming to the UK is a privilege and not a right and she will continue to use the powers available to prevent from entering the UK those who seek to harm our society and who do not share our basic values. Exclusion powers are very serious and are not used lightly. The Home Secretary will use these powers when justified and based on all available evidence,” wrote the UK government in the online petitions section of the Parliament.
In December Prime Minister David Cameron said Donald Trump’s remarks were “divisive, stupid and wrong” when referring to the measures proposed by Trump, that plan to ban Muslims from entering to the U.S if he is elected. He also added that he was proud of leading a multiracial and multiethnic country and commented that if the rich man visited the UK he would unite the British against him.
An executive for The Trump Organization, George A. Sorial, already declared about the controversy related to the debate, what he remarked was that the organization would not invest in the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland and the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, if Trump was banned, he specifically said that any action to restrict travel would force The Trump Organization to immediately end all future investments they are currently contemplating in the United Kingdom.
Source: CBS News