Hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that President Donald Trump may attend a state visit to London this year, Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor and the first Muslim mayor of a major western city, has demanded cancellation of the planned state visit.
Meanwhile, calls were also growing for protest marches like those that took place in Washington DC and around the world last weekend on behalf of women’s rights, with many branding Trump a ‘racist’ and ‘bigot’ on social media.
A number of Twitter users added their voices to the growing dissent and by Saturday afternoon, several events had been posted on Facebook, including by the organisers of last week’s successful Women’s March on London.
The march in London took place as one of many sister marches to that in Washington DC marking Trump’s inauguration, which was organised by women’s rights activists.
The campaign group Stand Up To Racism – of which British Labour MP Diane Abbott is the President – had also posted an event page on Facebook, which it said had the backing of the Stop the War Coalition, People’s Assembly Against Austerity and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Though no date has yet been given for the visit, the post said it would organise ‘protests to oppose Trump’s racism, sexism and bigotry’.
The news follows a number of controversial orders signed by Trump during his first week as US president, including one to restrict the entry for nationals of seven countries in which the population is predominantly Muslim. The order caused Google to issue an urgent recall of staff outside the US on Saturday, amid fears they would be denied re-entry.
