UK Parliament debates banning Donald Trump. Should it happen here?

The U.K. Parliament won’t ban Donald Trump from the country, in spite of its deep dislike of the Republican presidential candidate.

Last month, Mr Trump provoked controversy with his comments that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States, after 14 people died in a shooting spree in California by two Muslims whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation said had been radicalised.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has made note of Trump’s incendiary words, describing the Republican candidate’s pronouncements as “divisive, stupid and wrong”.

It received more than 576,000 signatures – more than five times the number required for MPs to consider sending the matter for debate in parliament.

During the colourful debate some MPs – drawn mainly from the Labour Party and Scottish National Party – likened Trump to a “hate preacher” whilst others argued a ban would only serve to “fuel to the media circus and would be a headline around the world”.

Political observers don’t believe that lawmakers will take a vote to ask Home Secretary Teresa May to bar Trump. On the face of it, his pronouncements on Muslims look similar to the kind of language used by others who have been banned from the United Kingdom in the past, but the idea of excluding Mr Trump from the country is flawed in principle, and would not work in practice.

“This is no attempt to disrespect in any way Americans or the American state”, Paul Flynn, a Labour Party member of parliament, said as he kicked off the debate in committee.

Alex Chalk, a Conservative MP, said: “This is about bufoonery”.

Paul Scully, a member of the Conservative Party, agreed.

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, SNP member for Ochil and South Perthshire, said Trump was racist and she felt so strongly in favour of a ban because his words about Muslims applied to her, her family and her friends. “The great danger by attacking this one man is that can fix on him a halo of victimhood… that may be an advantage among those who support him”. 84 people have been banned in this way.

The same is likely to happen with Donald Trump. Many, though, argued that he should not be stifled or banned. Should Trump visit Britain again, he will have no shortage of things to do.

Minister of Immigration James Brokenshire said the government did not comment on whom it was considering for exclusion but said “a frank and open exchange of views” was the most effective way to influence Trump.

Mr Trump has threatened to withdraw millions of pounds of investment from Scotland where he owns the Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire and the Trump worldwide resort at Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire. MP Naz Shah offered to take Trump for a curry meal in her constituency of Bradford, which has a high Muslim population.

“I thought, this is somebody either who’s so deceitful that he’s got us all running around thinking that he’s right about so many of these issues – and unfortunately so many Americans do – or he’s deluded”.