Theresa May has ordered her foreign and home secretaries to speak to their US counterparts about Donald Trump’s ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the US, as she faced increasing pressure over the issue.

With both Jeremy Corbyn and the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, calling on May to cancel Trump’s planned state visit to Britain if he does not rescind the ban, May held a conference call with Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd on Sunday morning.

A Downing Street source said they were instructed to make representations to their equivalents in the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, in particular to secure the rights of UK nationals.

Among the calls being made were to Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, two of Trump’s most senior advisers.

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.

News of May’s instruction came after both Sir Mo Farah, who came to the UK from Somalia, and the Iraq-born Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi said they feared they could be affected by the ban, which has brought global condemnation and prompted travel and legal chaos within the US.

Following condemnation overnight that she was too slow to condemn the ban, May was criticised over Trump’s proposed state visit, agreed as part of the talks which saw May become the first overseas leader to visit the new president this week.

Corbyn told the Guardian that May would be “failing the British people” if she did not call off the visit by Trump, planned for the summer.



Davidson said state visits were designed “to celebrate and entrench the friendships and shared values between their respective countries”.

She said: “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.”

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Corbyn said: “Donald Trump should not be welcomed to Britain while he abuses our shared values with his shameful Muslim ban and attacks on refugees’ and women’s rights.

“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.”

Johnson took to Twitter to condemn Trump’s policy in notably stronger words than used so far by May, saying: “We will protect the rights and freedoms of UK nationals home and abroad. Divisive and wrong to stigmatise because of nationality.”

Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) We will protect the rights and freedoms of UK nationals home and abroad. Divisive and wrong to stigmatise because of nationality

But Downing Street insisted there were no plans to call off the visit. Asked if there were any second thoughts, a spokesman said only: “We extended the invitation and it was accepted.”

With Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, also calling for the state visit to be cancelled, a petition to downgrade Trump’s trip gained more than 500,000 signatures in a matter of hours on Sunday, meaning it will be debated in parliament. Separately, a Facebook-organised call for people to protest outside Downing Street at the policy on Monday evening had prompted more than 11,000 people to sign up by Sunday evening.

With Zahawi warning he and his wife might be unable to visit their two sons, who are at university in the US, Farah released a statement calling the ban “a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice”.

During a trip to Turkey on Saturday, May declined three times to say she condemned Trump’s executive order. Amid growing criticism, including from some of her MPs, a spokesman for the PM released a statement shortly after midnight saying she disagreed with the policy.

Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, told BBC1’s Sunday Politics 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.

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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.

“I think there are real risks with it being counterproductive, and we don’t have that policy – we wouldn’t contemplate going down the route of a ban in this way, and we have a very different approach to it,” Gauke said. “We disagree with the position that President Trump has set out.”

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 was born in Baghdad and 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.”



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However, the Stratford-on-Avon MP said May was correct in being cautious to respond: “I think her being careful is a good thing. But she was also very candid with President Trump.”

May’s eventual statement said the UK would “make representations” if British citizens were affected by the US ban.

“Immigration policy in the United States is a matter for the government of the United States, just the same as immigration policy for this country should be set by our government,” the spokesman said.

“But we do not agree with this kind of approach and it is not one we will be taking. We are studying this new executive order to see what it means and what the legal effects are, and in particular what the consequences are for UK nationals. If there is any impact on UK nationals then clearly we will make representations to the US government about that.”