Story highlights US President Donald Trump to make state visit to UK later this year

Suggestion he could be invited to address politicians in Westminster Hall provoked anger from MPs

Previous figures afforded the rare honor include Nelson Mandela, Pope Benedict XVI and Barack Obama

London (CNN) The Speaker of Britain's House of Commons says he is "strongly opposed" to letting US President Donald Trump address lawmakers during his state visit to the UK.

John Bercow said his resistance to the speech was because of Parliament's "opposition to racism and sexism."

Bercow is one of three parliamentary officials who must approve any invitation for someone to speak in Westminster Hall, the venue typically used for grand occasions of state.

Speaking in response to a motion signed by 163 MPs calling for Trump not to be afforded a Westminster Hall audience, Bercow said "an address by a foreign leader to both Houses of Parliament is not an automatic right, it is an earned honor."

British Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to make a state visit to the UK when she met him in the White House a week after his inauguration last month. The details of the trip have not yet been finalized, and not every state visit to the UK involves an address to Parliament.