Trump will not be asked to address MPs during June state visit
US President Donald Trump will not be asked to address MPs when he visits the UK in June, according to reports.
The government has not requested that the Commons and Lords speakers make time for Trump to make a speech in parliament.
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“We’ve not asked. It’s not going to happen,” a Whitehall source told the Huffington Post.
A source also told Politics Home that “Donald Trump will definitely not be addressing Parliament while he is here.”
Commons speaker John Bercow has expressed his opposition to a Trump address in the past, including during the President’s 2017 visit to the UK.
Meanwhile, more than 50 Labour MPs last month signed a petition demanding that Trump’s state visit be cancelled, citing his “misogynism, racism and xenophobia”.
The President is set to land in the UK on 3 June and leave after two days, which will include a commemoration of the sacrifices of allied troops during D-Day, 75 years ago.
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Others have stood up for the President’s right to speak to parliament. Lords speaker Lord Fowler has backed calls for a speech, saying he objects to attempts to ban Trump’s appearance.
“I find it unacceptable that we should even consider turning our backs on the elected leader of a country to whom everyone in Britain today owes so much,” he said during a speech to the Cambridge Union Society.