Houses of Parliament emblazoned with huge ‘No To Trump’ projection

Some 20,000 people were expected to partake in the event, according to the organizers. A 2015 state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping drew protests from Tibetan groups and human rights activists.

The protests were an extension of the Day Without Immigrants protests against Trump in the U.S., where businesses run by foreign-born citizens temporarily closed.

They were addressed by Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott who condemned the “dark shadow of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment”. I really hate everything that Donald Trump stands for.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, warned that African Americans were afraid of the presidency, saying Trump was supported by the Ku Klux Klan and had white supremacists in his inner circle. “We are greatly concerned about the actions that he has taken – extraordinary actions, blundering into frozen conflicts around the planet that needed delicate handling, that needed the microsurgery taken in the past by statesmen”.

She told Pirate FM: “I think people are ignorant, they haven’t looked at things from all the angles and all the things that are going on in the world”. The order was brought to halt by a federal judge.

As parliament debated that petition on Monday – a symbolic discussion which has no power to force the government to withdraw its invitation – around 7,000 protesters gathered outside with placards bearing slogans such as “Dump Trump, Fight Bigotry”.

The three-hour debate in the Westminster Hall of parliament on Monday was triggered by more than 1.8 million people signing a petition that called for cancelling a state visit by Trump on the ground that it would embarrass Queen Elizabeth.

“While this ban is quite ridiculous, it is actually a reaction to the chaos caused in the Middle East by previous generations of politicians which in my view is far worse than Trump has done”.

Veteran Labour MP Paul Flynn, leading the debate in Parliament, called on ministers to listen to the demonstrators and downgrade the visit.

But Sir Alan said that while state visits – where the guest is hosted by the Queen and afforded the pomp and ceremony attached – are “rare and prestigious” occasions, they are also Britain’s “most important diplomatic tool”.

GJN director Nick Dearden said: “Since assuming his presidency, Trump has been responsible for some of the most unsafe and divisive policies of our times, and it’s disgraceful that Theresa May would want to normalise his odious politics of hate by inviting him for a state visit”.

However, there would be no escaping mass demonstrations in London and other major cities.

“To do so now [invite Trump], now that he is President, would only reinforce and condone his actions and his divisive, racist and sexist messages We can not support what he is doing by offering him legitimacy”, said Naz Shah, a Pakistani-origin Labour party MP.

She said: “Unlike the Member for Gainsborough, I do not know any men who think this or have these thoughts or even discuss them in the locker room”.

Labour’s Paul Flynn pointed out that a state visit was a “rare privilege” given to only two other USA presidents since the 1950s – George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Liam Byrne, another Labour MP, said Trump’s visit would be divisive. However, the United States has a “pretty nasty virus” today, she noted.

“In the end the point isn’t whether Donald Trump gets the full-blown United Kingdom state visit treatment, it’s whether we raise our voice against this disastrous rollback of rights”, Allen added.