A petition calling on the UK Government to cancel Donald Trump’s planned state visit reached one million signatures amid growing outrage over an immigration ban implemented in the US.
The President signed an executive order on Friday limiting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, suspending refugee resettlement for 120 days and barring Syrian refugees indefinitely from entering the country.
The order provoked a furious public outcry around the world, with protesters taking to the streets in outrage over what many called a “Muslim ban”.
In the UK, a record number of people have signed the petition, with signatures reaching more then 1,370,000 at the time of writing.
A heat map attached to the petition showed UK residents in large cities and university towns were more likely to have signed.
London, Brighton, Exeter, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, among others, all saw a high concentrate of residents voice their concerns. However, no notable north/south divide was visible in the coloured map, with darker saturation representing a higher proportion of votes.
Any petition that receives more than 100,000 signatures within six months must be considered for debate by MPs in Parliament.
Petitions that attract more than 10,000 in the time period requires a response from the Government.
The “Muslim ban” petition eclipsed the target within a few hours, surpassing 280,000 signatures by 3pm on the day of launch.
However, Downing Street reiterated its stance had not changed on the President’s forthcoming trip.
“An invitation has been extended and accepted,” a Number 10 spokesman said.
