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Donald Trump maintains he has not seen any protests while on his state visit to the UK. As my colleague Simon Murphy shares, he really must not be looking:

About 100 demonstrators are outside the gates of Buckingham Palace as his helicopter lands. They are protesting against the US president being handed “the red-carpet treatment”.

Waving banners emblazoned with messages declaring the president was “evil”, scores of protesters blowing whistles and horns massed on a green outside the palace.

Demonstrators, many of who were clutching signs urging people to “just say no” to the special relationship, chanted: “Donald Trump’s not welcome here.”

The demonstration, labelled “Protest at the Palace: Spoil Trump’s banquet” by Facebook organisers, called on attendees to “Bring pots and pans, vuvuzelas, musical instruments etc and make some noise”.

Anti Trump protesters outside Buckingham Palace in central London, Britain, 03 June 2019. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Weyman Bennett, 54, the co-convenor of Stand up to Racism who helped organise the protest, told the Guardian the state visit represented “an insult to people’s basic decent values” and should have been cancelled.



It will be cucumber sandwiches over champagne. It doesn’t matter how boorish he is or what ridiculous things he says, I think very few people will challenge him. That’s not to our credit. Sometimes you have to say to a bully they’re wrong and stand up for basic rights. He’s threatened nuclear war, he’s behaved like a boorish idiot, he doesn’t even respect basic diplomatic values.

Theresa May had hoped to bolster her position by inviting Trump, he said, but it had “completely backfired”, adding: “His visit should have been cancelled until he accepts basic human rights.”

Bernard Kiernan, a 70-year-old retired IT consultant who volunteers at a hospital, said he had joined the protest in “solidarity” with friends living in America. He branded Trump a “bully” and a “misogynist”, adding: “He should not have the right to visit our country. He’s not fit to be president.”

Margaret Sanchez, 65, a retired nurse from north west London, described the multi-million pound visit as a “waste of public funds”. She added:

He’s a business man, he’s not a politician. He doesn’t know how to talk to people. If it doesn’t suit him, he calls it fake news.

Neighbours Roshan Pedder, 72, and Paul Gossage, 66, from Surrey, travelled to London to voice their opposition to the visit. Gossage, a retired ambulance technician, carried a sign declaring: “TRUMP IS A MENACE.” He said:

I think it’s important that ordinary people from the UK life myself show we don’t want him here.

At one stage during the protest, a scuffle broke out when a demonstrator tried to wrestle a “make America great again” red hat from a Trump supporter who had turned up.