[ABC] The speaker of the British House of Commons was greeted with cheers today after he announced his opposition to President Trump addressing Parliament during his state visit to the U.K.Speaker John Bercow pointed to Trump’s recent executive order barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority nation from travelling to the U.S. as part of the reason he could not support a Trump address.
"I would not wish to issue an invitation to President Trump to speak in the Royal Gallery," Bercow said during a session of Parliament, citing the body’s "opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary."
Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to make a state visit during her meeting with the leader in Washington last month. The invitation has attracted significant controversy back in the U.K., one of the U.S.’s most important global allies.
A petition calling for the invitation to be rescinded garnered 1.8 million signatures and is now set to be debated in Parliament later this month. Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of London and other cities across the U.K. last week to protest Trump’s executive order. An estimated 10,000 protesters demonstrated in front of 10 Downing St., the prime minister's residence, chanting "shame on May" and other slogans opposing the invitation.