Unsurprisingly, Republican candidate Donald Trump’s view that Muslims he disallowed from entering the United States, followed the next day by his statement that parts of London are so radicalised "police are afraid for their own their lives," received widespread condemnation in the United Kingdom, with voices from most political parties and the larger public calling for a ban on his entry to the UK.
A petition launched on the Parliament website by Suzanne Kelly, a campaigner against Mr. Trump’s golf course development in Scotland, calling for Mr. Trump to be barred from the UK on grounds that he promotes hate speech, has gained 116,122 signatures in a matter of hours. The subject matter of any petition that crosses 100,000 must be debated in Parliament. His “continued, unrepentant hate speech and unacceptable behavior” is strong reason for a ban, BBC reported Ms. Kelly as saying.
Mr. Trump’s absurdities and posturings have thus far been ignored. But his statement on Muslims falls into a realm of ideology that the left and right want to distance themselves from – particularly as his popularity ratings have been consistently high. British Prime Minister David Cameron broke with the practice of not commenting on the candidates or the electoral process in foreign countries by describing Mr. Trump’s statements as “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.”
Mr. Trump was criticised by London mayor Boris Johnson who said his comments were “ill-informed, and complete and utter nonsense.”
Even the usually restrained Metropolitan Police reacted icily to his view of London policing of so-called ‘radicalised’ areas of the city. “Any candidate for the presidential election in the United States of America is welcome to receive a briefing from the Met police on the reality of policing London,” the statement said.
People took to twitter to pillory him. One tweet showed a picture of the Queen her head tied in a scarf with the comment “Britain is so radicalised that the Queen now wears a Hijab,” with another from J.K. Rowling saying that Voldemort was never so bad.
The Labour Party Shadow Home Secretary Jack Dromey has been quoted in the Mirror as saying "Donald Trump is a dangerous fool who would divide people and faiths just when we most need a unity of people and faiths to defeat Isis.” Even Nigel Farage of the far right United Kingdom Independence Party told BBC that Mr. Trump’s statement is “a political mistake too far.”
