Speaker declares Trump too racist and sexist to speak in Westminster Hall

John Bercow, the Speaker, has just said being invited to give a speech in Westminster Hall for a foreign leader is an “earned honour”. And it is not an invitation that automatically comes with a state visit, he says.

He says is is one of three people that would have to approve an invitation to someone to speak in Westminster Hall. He would have been opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall even before the migrant ban. Since that ban, he is even more opposed to it, he says.

He says he has less influence over whether Trump gets invited to speak in the Royal Gallery (which is in the Lords). But he would oppose that too, he says. He says this is because of the House’s opposition to “racism and sexism”. Some MPs applaud this statement.

Lovely balance in the poll options...

Wow.

Speaker Bercow has declared Trump to be too sexist and racist to be permitted to speak to Parliament.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/feb/06/may-to-meet-netanyahu-ahead-of-brexit-debate-in-commons-live-updates

Take that and chew on it, Trump!

This must be a first for a very long time - a Speaker of the British Parliament denying speaking rights to the American President, due to his unsuitable conduct.

If it wasn't tragic, it would be funny.

You beat me to it!

This is genius by Bercow.

You beat me to it!

If Trump is blocked from speaking, his inevitable hissy fit on Twitter will probably crash the internet.

Get the Guardian app and enable push notifications.

He's a real character.

I'm waiting for the tedious refutations by May, Johnson, etc, "it's not his decision, it's above his pay grade, etc, etc, blather, blather."

What I will say is this. An address by a foreign leader to both House of Parliament is not an automatic right. It is an earned honour. Moreover, there are many precedents for state visits to take place to our country which do not include an address to both Houses of Parliament. That’s the first point.

In relation to Westminster Hall, there are three key holder to Westminster Hall: the speaker of the House of Commons, the speaker of the House of Lords and the lord great chamberlain. Ordinarily we are able to work by consensus and the hall would be used for a purpose such as an address or another purpose by agreement of the three key holders.

I must say to the honourable gentleman, to all who signed his early day motion and to others with strong views about this matter on either side of the argument, that before the imposition of the migrant ban I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall. After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump I am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall.

So far as the Royal Gallery is concerned, again I operate on advice, I do not perhaps have as strong a say in that matter. It is in a different part of the building [ie, in the House of Lords, not the Commons], although customarily an invitation to a visiting leader to deliver an address there would be issued in the names of the two speakers. I would not wish to issue an invitation to President Trump to speak in the Royal Gallery.

And I concluded by saying to the honourable gentleman this. We value our relationshjip with the United States. If a state visit takes place, that is way beyond beyond and above the pay grade of the Speaker.

However, as far as this place [the House of Commons] is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons.

Get the Guardian app and enable push notifications.

I thought that Michael Martin was the worst speaker ever. But no, along came John Bercow, the biggest womble ever to grace the chair.

I have it - just too slow to type it up...!

I can't really recall Trump saying something overtly sexist or racist in his campaign or as president. Sure, in the past he's been pretty blatantly misogynistic, but I see no reason to believe he would be in any speaking position nowadays. He's a total douchebag and I hate what he's doing, but this declaration seems strange to me.

Sounds like Bercrow is a bit of a retard. Nothing Trump's has said politically is racist or sexist.

He has very long form for this - decades ago in New York he paid for a campaign to convict and sentence to death some alleged rapists in Central Park who were black. They have all recently been released due to DNA evidence proving it was someone else. He still refuses to acknowledge his mistake.