British parliament to debate Donald Trump ban from the UK following anti-Muslim outburst

The British parliament will debate on whether to ban Donald Trump from the UK or not. On Monday, the legislative body will formally debate a petition signed by over half a million people to bar the US presidential candidate from entering Britain following his remarks on Muslims.

The petition calls for Trump to be stopped from entering the country on grounds of hate speech. It demands the government to apply the “unacceptable behaviour” criteria fairly to all who wish to enter its borders, including the US Republican frontrunner.

Trump wants a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US, calling for a control of Muslims already in the country. His comments sparked widespread condemnation, not just in the US, but worldwide. At the same time, however, the comments also helped boost his ratings even higher from Republican voters, propelling him even further in the race.

His later comments invited further controversy when he said that there were Muslim-dominated districts in London that had been so “radicalised” that even police were off limits. The London Metropolitan police denied the American’s assessment, while London Mayor Boris Johnson called Trump’s comment “simply ridiculous.”

The debate does not necessarily mean Trump would automatically be banned, though. The parliament just considers all petitions with 100,000 signatures.

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has a different approach, however. The Labour chairman also did not agree with Trump, saying the American real estate mogul has “weird and, frankly, off-the-wall views.” But rather than banning Trump from entering UK, Corbyn even invited him to Britain, particularly to his constituency.

“As you know, my wife is Mexican and my constituency is very, very multicultural,” he told the titular host of the “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “So what I’m going to do is to go down to the mosque with him and let him talk to people there.”

“I’m sure he’d love it,” Marr sarcastically replied.

Corbyn said Trump should not be prohibited from entering Britain on his beliefs alone. On the contrary, Trump should be taken to culturally diverse cities to see that Britain has “great community, great society and great cohesion.”

The BBC reports that Trump has threatened to cancel £700 million (AU$1.5 billion) of planned investment if he is blocked in the UK.

Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon proposed to sever all government business links with Trump following his controversial comments. As the Guardian reported in December, she withdrew his membership of the GlobalScot business network, describing Trump’s remarks as “obnoxious and offensive.”