The UK Parliament had a lot to say about banning Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop before next months earliest in the nation presidential primary, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Windham, N.H.

Labor’s Paul Flynn, chairman of the Petitions Committee, led the debate and said that although there was resistance to the matter even coming before Parliament, it would be “very hard to ignore a vox pop that’s so sudden and thunderous and contains the signatures of half a million people”, he said.

More than 500,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Trump to be blocked for “hate speech” after he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

The tycoon sparked outrage after saying Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S. and that parts of London were “so radicalised” that police were “afraid for their own lives”.

According to United Kingdom law, any petition which garners at least 100,000 verifiable signatures automatically triggers a parliamentary debate on the issue.

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.

The three-hour debate ended without a vote, but with the MPs agreeing that they had “duly considered ” the petition as they were obliged to do. “His words are poisonous and they risk inflaming tensions between vulnerable communities”, lawmaker Tulip Siddiq, a Muslim, told her colleagues in the House of Commons.

David Cameron has said he “completely disagrees” with Mr Trump’s comments and Home Secretary Theresa May called his views on Muslims “divisive, unhelpful and wrong”.

“I know we’ve had some examples of where people have been excluded from this country, I’ve heard of a number of cases where people have been excluded for incitement, for hatred – I’ve never heard of one for stupidity”, he said.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Gordon MP Alex Salmond said he wanted to ban all Donald Trumps from Scotland.

The British government has the power to deny entry into the country to people with criminal convictions or to those whose presence is considered not “conducive to the public good”. “But what it does do is allow us to have our say”, Conservative Paul Scully said. “He is not free to be a unsafe fool on our shores”. Others said let him come, including the Labour Party’s Naz Shah. She said was “a proud Muslim woman” and the Quran had taught her that “goodness is better than evil.

Mr Trump threatened to pull planned investments from his Scottish golf resorts – Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and the Trump Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire – if a ban is put in place.