What happens now?
A former head of the Foreign Office has said Theresa May’s decision to invite Trump for a state visit has put the Queen in a “very difficult position”.
Lord Ricketts told the BBC that the speed of Trumps invite had “surprised” him.
A petition was started stating that it wanted a ban on Trump visiting the UK, the petition has reached over 1.6m signatures. Another petition which is pro-visit has reached 90,000.
As well as this on Monday thousands of people were protesting in the UK against Trumps ban on seven mainly Muslim countries.
Lord Ricketts told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme that the state visit should be delayed until later in Trump’s presidency.
He also said the Queen would want to receive the president in a “celebratory, warm, friendly visit”, a state visit at the moment could seem “quite controversial”.
He added, it has got the Queen directly involved with “this early turbulent period of the Trump presidency, when these controversial policies are being announced and so on,”
A date has yet to be decided for when Trump will pay a visit, events usually include an invite to stay at Buckingham Palace which is hosted by the Queen.
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