ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Most Britons back Donald Trump’s planned state visit to Britain, a poll has found.

The survey, conducted by YouGov for The Times, found 49 per cent of the British public supported Mr Trump’s UK visit with 36 per cent opposed.

It is the first poll published on the contentious issue which has provoked widespread protest online and outside Westminster.

Since Sunday more than 1.7 million people have signed a petition to prevent Mr Trump visiting the UK saying “it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen.”

It will now be debated by MPs on Februrary 20.

But the poll shows the volume of protests is not the same as so-called public opinion.

Theresa May has dismissed the petition saying she is "very happy" for Mr Trump's planned state visit to Britain to go ahead.

The poll comes amid an intensifying backlash in Britain against the new US president's travel ban on refugees and people from seven predominately Muslim countries.

The executive order, which shut down the US refugee programme for 120 days and halted all immigration from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen for 90 days, prompted thousands of Londoners to march on Downing Street on Monday evening.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, issued one of the strongest condemnations of Mr Trump's immigration policy, saying it risked becoming a "propaganda opportunity" for the Islamic State, according to The Times.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Londoners would not support "rolling out the red carpet" for Mr Trump until the muslim ban is lifted.

Mr Kahn told the Standard:"We must now rescind the offer of a full state visit for President Trump - until this ban is lifted."