Donald Trump’s state visit could be set for Parliament recess to stop him addressing MPs, senior diplomat says
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Donald Trump’s state visit could be scheduled while Parliament is in recess to stop him giving a speech to MPs, a senior diplomat said yesterday.
The US President has been offered a historic second state visit in a charm offensive designed to smooth relations with Labour politicians who criticised him in opposition.
Whitehall sources had suggested it could include inviting Mr Trump to make a joint address to both Houses of Parliament.
But former Foreign Office chief Lord Ricketts said the visit, expected in September, will take place during the parliamentary recess to avoid any prospect of such a speech.
Lord Ricketts suggested ministers are anxious to limit the President’s public statements while in the UK to prevent him going off-message.
There are also concerns Left-wing MPs could stage protests if he is invited to address them.
Lord Ricketts fears Mr Trump’s visit could be more fraught than that of French leader Emmanuel Macron, who will address both Houses of Parliament today.
He said: ‘Diplomatically, it is going to be more of a high-wire act. The Macron visit can be guaranteed to be positive.
The US President has been offered a historic second state visit in a charm offensive designed to smooth relations with Labour politicians who criticised him in opposition
Whitehall sources had suggested it could include inviting Mr Trump to make a joint address to both Houses of Parliament
The Prime Minister extended the official invitation from the monarch to the president to come to the UK on his visit to the White House in February
‘The tactic [with Mr Trump] will be to load up the pomp and circumstance… in the hope he will then feel positive and there won’t be anything untoward said.
‘The risk will be the Press conferences and what he might say away from the state visit itself. It’s going to be a nail-biting few days.’
Speaking to the BBC, Lord Ricketts added: ‘I think the Trump visit will come in the parliamentary recess – that may be convenient.
‘I suspect there won’t, unfortunately, be an occasion for President Trump to address the joint Houses of Parliament.’
A number of US presidents have addressed both Houses, including Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Controversial figures such as Chinese leader Xi Jinping have also had the honour, and denying Mr Trump the same privilege risks being seen as a diplomatic snub.
Plans for him to address Parliament during his state visit in 2018 were axed after the then Speaker John Bercow vowed to block the move over Parliament’s opposition to ‘racism and sexism’.
At the time, now-Foreign Secretary David Lammy branded Mr Trump a ‘woman-hating, neo- Nazi-sympathizing sociopath’.
Twenty Labour MPs, including ex-frontbenchers Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Clive Lewis, have signed a Commons motion claiming Mr Trump’s ‘misogynism, racism and xenophobia’ mean it would be ‘inappropriate’ for him to address Parliament.
