New Yorkers took to the streets earlier to protest Trump's comments on Muslims | KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty British parliament to debate ‘Ban Trump’ petition More than 565,000 want Republican candidate barred from the UK.

British MPs will debate a public petition calling for Donald Trump to be barred from the U.K. that was signed by more than 565,000 people.

The House of Commons petitions committee decided to hold a debate at a meeting Tuesday. The rules state that MPs have to consider any petition with 100,000 signatures for discussion in parliament. The debate will take place on January 18 in the parliament's secondary debating chamber rather than the main chamber and there will be no vote.

A rival petition opposing a ban has been signed by nearly 40,000 people. It will also be debated.

In December, the government said it “may exclude” someone if their presence is “non-conducive to the public good” but stopped short of saying that the billionaire American tycoon falls into that category.

Republican presidential candidate Trump came under fire in December after calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

In response, the petition to be debated later in January was set up. It says: “The U.K. has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the U.K. If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the ‘unacceptable behavior’ criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful.”

Trump later claimed there were “places in London and other places that are so radicalized that police are afraid for their own lives.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron called Trump's remarks “divisive, stupid and wrong.”