John Bercow has just declared that he will oppose an invitation for Donald Trump to speak in either Westminster Hall or the Royal Gallery when, or should that be if, the US President comes on a state visit to Britain. The Speaker of the House of Commons’ opposition makes it extremely difficult for any invitation to be offered for Trump to address both Houses.
Bercow’s argument is not simply that Trump hasn’t been president long enough to merit the honour, but that the Commons’ opposition to, to use his own words, ‘racism and sexism’ mean that such an invitation would be inappropriate. This is a quite remarkable slap at the head of a state of an allied nation; remember that the President of China—a one-party, human-rights abusing state—addressed the Royal Gallery less than two years ago.
There’ll be lots of MPs who agree with Bercow, and there was applause from the opposition benches following his announcement, but this grandstanding feels inappropriate to me.
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