Tory MPs join Labour to criticise PM’s response as condemnation of US president’s policy spreads across the world Protests spread over Trump travel ban on Muslim majority countries – live

Theresa May is facing a revolt among her own MPs over her reluctance to condemn Donald Trump’s ban on arrivals from predominantly Muslim countries and her desire to push ahead with a state visit by the US president.

Trump has refused to step back from his controversial executive order, despite global outrage, chaos at US airports and a stand-off between his administration and its own legal system.

His policy, which immediately banned all citizens from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa from entering the US, is thought to have directly affected the travel plans of thousands of people inside and outside the country, and was challenged in the US courts within hours of being enforced.

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Trump did not acknowledge the decision by a federal judge on Saturday night to partially block the executive order and a senior White House official said: “All stopped visas will remain stopped. All halted admissions will remain halted. All restricted travel will remain prohibited.”

Despite ongoing protests and confusion on the policy details, one administration official told Reuters the orders constituted a “massive success story”.

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As global condemnation of the ban spread, British Conservative figures joined the Labour party in questioning May’s decision to proceed with a state visit that would see Trump courted by the UK government and royalty.

The backlash against May’s failure to condemn the move gathered pace amid fears that British citizens holding dual nationality could be affected. The government said they had been assured by the US that those citizens would not be affected by the ban as long as they weren’t travelling from one of the seven countries involved.

Boris Johnson was still expected to face questions about the ban in the House of Commons on Monday. The foreign secretary, who used Twitter to call the policy “divisive”, will be pressed on why Britain took longer than others to receive assurances from the US and why May did not condemn the policy in the same way as other European leaders.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she “regretted” Trump’s measure and described it as an unjustified “general suspicion against people of a certain origin of religion”. François Hollande, the French president, said Trump had opted for a “dead end response” to an “unstable and uncertain world”.

US travel ban - a brief guide The executive order signed by Donald Trump suspends the entire US refugee admissions system, already one of the most rigorous in the world, for 120 days. It also suspends the Syrian refugee program indefinitely, and bans entry to the US to people from seven majority-Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – for 90 days. The order has prompted a series of legal challenges, while thousands of Americans have protested outside airports and courthouses in solidarity with Muslims and migrants.

After May declined three times on Saturday to condemn the executive order during a press conference in Turkey, Downing Street released a statement overnight saying the government “does not agree” with this approach. On Sunday and under pressure, Downing Street said that May had convened a conference call with Johnson and Rudd to instruct them to speak to their equivalents in the State Department and Department of Homeland Security.

But MPs from the prime minister’s own party have gone further, opting for a markedly different tone in condemning the president, with some questioning her decision to cosy up to Trump in Washington with a joint press conference before the ban was announced this week.

Writing in the Guardian, Sarah Wollaston said photographs of Trump grasping May’s hand as they walked through the White House “smacked of the unwelcome infantilising of a strong female leader”.

The Totnes MP wrote: “A shameful curtain of prejudice and discrimination is drawing across the land of the free and, if we are truly in a special relationship, true friends should be frank in saying so.”

Wollaston said that while the state visit would be likely to go ahead, how it was done would provide an important “symbol”. She said Westminster Hall ought to be reserved for leaders who had made a lasting and positive difference to the world. “That does not include Mr Trump. No doubt there will be those who wish to fawn over him but that must not be from the steps of our nation’s greatest hall.”

Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, also said state visits were intended to “celebrate and entrench the friendships and shared values between their respective countries … A state visit from the current president of the United States could not possibly occur in the best traditions of the enterprise while a cruel and divisive policy which discriminates against citizens of the host nation is in place. I hope President Trump immediately reconsiders his Muslim ban.”

The impact of the ban on Britons was brought home as one Conservative MP, Nadhim Zahawi, who was born in Baghdad, said he feared he and his wife could no longer visit their twin sons, who are studying in the US.



Sir Mo Farah, who came to the UK as a child from Somalia, warned that what he called a policy “of ignorance and prejudice” could see him separated from his US-based family.

On the question of British citizens, Johnson spoke to Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, according to a source.

The foreign secretary – who took to Twitter to condemn Trump’s policy, saying it was wrong to stigmatise people on the base of nationality – faced pressure to make a statement to the Commons or face an urgent question from Labour and the SNP.



A statement released after Johnson’s call with Kushner and Bannon said: “The only dual national [British citizens] who might have extra checks are those coming from one of the seven countries themselves – for example a UK-Libya dual national coming from Libya to the US. The US has reaffirmed its strong commitment to the expeditious processing of all travellers from the United Kingdom.”

It was unclear what revisions of the ban had been passed from the White House to border officials to guarantee these assurances that Britons would not be affected.

A Labour source said: “Whatever happens, we will be demanding to know why the Canadian government was able to provide assurance to its nationals on Saturday evening that they would be unaffected by the ban, at the same time that No 10 was only just getting round to looking into [its] implications.”



Labour is also expected to ask whether May knew of Trump’s order during her talks with him on Friday. The US president signed it the same day, after she had left.

Jeremy Corbyn told the Guardian that Trump “should not be welcomed to Britain while he abuses our shared values … Theresa May would be failing the British people if she does not postpone the state visit and condemn Trump’s actions in the clearest terms. That’s what Britain expects and deserves.”

With Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, also calling for the state visit to be cancelled, a petition to downgrade Trump’s trip gained almost a million signatures by early Monday morning, meaning it will be considered for debate in parliament. Separately, a Facebook-organised call for people to protest outside Downing Street at the policy on Monday evening prompted more than 17,000 people to say they would attend.

However Downing Street said there were no plans to amend or call off Trump’s state visit, expected in the summer. Asked if there were any second thoughts, a spokesman said only: “We extended the invitation and it was accepted.”

Farron said: “Any visit by President Trump to Britain should be on hold until his disgraceful ban comes to an end. Otherwise Theresa May would be placing the Queen in an impossible position of welcoming a man who is banning British citizens purely on grounds of their faith.”

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, said May should contact Trump directly to seek an end to the ban. “You’re the prime minister,” he tweeted. “Get on the phone to the president and tell him the ban cannot stand. And do it today.”

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Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, told BBC1’s Sunday Politics that she wished May had spoken out on the issue during her visit to see Trump this week. “Given that she had built clearly an excellent relationship with President Trump and convinced him that Nato was the right thing to support, I felt she had the strength of relationship that she could have been firmer at the time,” Allen said.

The presidential order places a 90-day ban on travel to the US for those from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen, seemingly including those with dual nationality. Trump has also banned refugees from entering the country for 120 days and those seeking asylum from Syria have been banned indefinitely.

Nicola Sturgeon said May should make her intentions plain, adding that she would raise the issue with the prime minister at a Brexit-focused meeting of leaders from the devolved nations in Cardiff on Monday.

David Gauke, chief secretary to the Treasury, told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show that the ban was “divisive” and it was “a particular concern” that UK nationals such as Zahawi could be caught up in it. Asked why it had taken May so long to respond, he said: “The prime minister is not a shoot-from-the-hip type of politician. She wants to see the evidence. She wants to understand precisely what the implications are.”

Speaking on the same programme, Zahawi, who came to the UK as a child, said he and his wife were worried they would not be able to travel to see their twin sons, who are studying at Princeton University, despite holding 10-year US visas. “For the first time in my life, last night, I felt discriminated against,” Zahawi said. “It’s demeaning. It’s sad.”