George Osborne has rejected the growing calls for Donald Trump to be banned from the UK after he announced his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
The Chancellor dencounced the Republican presidential candidate's controversial remarks as going against the "founding principle of the United States" and said his "nonsense" views must be rejected by making it "very clear that his views are not welcome".
But he said the idea of using anti-extremism legislation to bar a presidential candidate from entering the UK would be wrong.
It comes as a petition calling for him to be banned surpassed the 100,000 signatures threshold needed for the proposal to be debated in Parliament.
Speaking as he deputised for David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Osborne told MPs:
"Frankly, Trump's comments fly in the face of the founding principle of the United States and is one of the reasons why they have provided such an inspiration.
"The best way to defeat nonsense like this is to engage in robust democratic debate and make it very clear that his views are not welcome."
Mr Osborne also praised the "brilliant job" that the Metropolitan police do in the capital after Mr Trump claimed that some areas of London were "no-go-areas" for police because of large Muslim communities.
The Chancellor added that the relationship between the police and Muslims in London was "excellent".
