While most British lawmakers are not impressed with United States presidential hopeful Donald Trump, most of them showed little interest to close Britain’s doors to him during a debate on calls to ban the Republican nominee from the country.
During a three-hour debate on Monday, legislators from Britain’s main parties stood to call Trump an attention-seeker, a demagogue and a fool. Many, though, argued that he should not be stifled or banned.
"While I think this man is crazy, while I think this man has no valid points to make, I will not be the one to silence his voice," said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat.
Labour Party legislator Paul Flynn, who opened the session, said Trump had already received ‘far too much attention’.
"The great danger by attacking this one man is that we can fix on him a halo of victimhood and boost his popularity among supporters," Flynn said.
But another Labour lawmaker, Tulip Siddiq, supported a ban.
"This is a man who is extremely high-profile ... a man who is interviewing for the most important job in the world. His words are not comical, his words are not funny. His words are poisonous." she said.
Parliament took up the topic after half a million people signed a petition calling for Trump to be excluded over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US in the wake of extremist violence.
Trump has also claimed that some areas of Britain are so radicalised that police fear for their lives.
Under the British law, any petition supported by 100,000 people who must each provide and confirm an email address is considered for parliamentary debate. Monday’s debate was intended to air the subject rather than take a vote.