Blackpool Tower will light up in rainbow colours this weekend in solidarity with LGBT people as Franklin Graham, the US conservative evangelical with links to Donald Trump and a track record of homophobic and Islamophobic comments, preaches at a Christian festival in the northern seaside town.

A rainbow flag will also fly from the tower. “The council is a strong supporter of all equalities issues and we use the rainbow flag and its derivatives on a regular basis to demonstrate that support across the whole year,” a council spokesperson said.

The preacher, the son of the late Billy Graham, will be the main attraction at the three-day Festival of Hope, which opens at the Winter Gardens on Friday. It has been organised by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with the support of local churches from different denominations.

But local LGBT organisations and other churches have objected to Graham’s presence, and are planning alternative events, including parading a four-metre-tall carnival model of Jesus wearing a rainbow sash through the town centre and holding services specifically welcoming to LGBT people.

The Muslim Council of Britain has called on the Home Office to refuse Graham entry to the UK, saying it expects the government to apply its criteria on hate speech. The home secretary has the power to exclude an individual whose presence in the UK is not considered conducive to the public good or if their exclusion is justified on public policy grounds.

Gordon Marsden, the Labour MP for Blackpool South, has written to Sajid Javid, the home secretary, asking him to revoke any visa already granted to Graham on the grounds that his entry and presence is not conducive to the public good.

He told Javid he had received a “wide number of representations from constituents, including local clergy and faith leaders, who were alarmed and appalled by the derogatory and inflammatory views that Franklin Graham has consistently expressed towards Muslims, members of the LGBT community and others”.

He added: “Despite the concerns and disquiet that his proposed visit has caused, Franklin Graham has made no attempt to address those concerns, or to withdraw or modify any of the views that I and others have described. Indeed he has continued to express them and emphasise his intention to continue their expression as part of his ‘mission’ to the UK.

“I therefore ask you to consider urgently now stopping any further escalation of tension and hurt towards the groups he continues to attack in his preaching by barring his ability to speak at the Winter Gardens.”

Other MPs in the area, including Paul Maynard, Mark Menzies and Cat Smith, have also written to the Home Office to express concerns about the impact of Graham’s visit.

Graham, who said Trump’s election victory was evidence that “God’s hand” was at work, has called Islam “evil” and “wicked”, claimed Barack Obama’s “problem is that he was born a Muslim” and said Satan was the architect of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.

This week, Graham intervened over anti-abortion supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying sexual assault allegations against him were irrelevant.

He told CBN News: “It’s just a shame that a person like Judge Kavanaugh, who has a stellar record, that somebody can bring something up that he did as a teenager close to 40 years ago. That’s not relevant.”

The claims were “just an attempt to smear him”, he added.

Trump has credited his 2016 election victory to evangelical Christians, who voted for him in overwhelming numbers. “Having Franklin Graham, who was so instrumental, we won so big, with evangelical Christians,” Trump said after the election at a rally in Alabama.

Graham’s visit to Blackpool comes 36 years after his father preached in the town. Billy Graham, the most influential evangelical leader of the 20th century, was a lifelong Democrat but supported both Democratic and Republican presidents. He promoted a message of religious and political unity. He died in February at the age of 99.

Nina Parker, of Blackpool’s Liberty church, which welcomes LGBT worshippers, said she was not opposed to the Festival of Hope but only to Graham leading it.

“Franklin Graham maintains wholehearted support for Trump and has a belief that God put Trump in the White House. To me, in the light of the many Trump policies that have harmed the most vulnerable in society, Graham’s support for Trump questions his credibility as a Christian leader.

“Graham speaks in a derogatory and inflammatory way about LGBT people, Muslims and other minorities.

“He seems committed to condemnation, discrimination, walls and prejudice in a way that Jesus never was. He seems to have a faith understanding that majors on condemnation and prejudice against minorities.”

Graham’s “Trump-style Christianity” was likely to increase prejudice and polarisation in communities, she added.

Blackpool council has said it has a contractual obligation to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association over the Winter Gardens booking, but it would terminate the booking if UK law on incitement to hatred was contravened during the festival.