Petition Seeks To Ban Donald Trump From U.K. Over Hate Speech

GOP presidential candidate accused of "unrepentant hate speech and unacceptable behavior."

Could Donald Trump get banned from Britain?

An online petition calls on U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May to bar the Republican presidential frontrunner from entering the country for allegedly violating the nation's hate-speech laws.

If it receives 100,000 signatures, the petition could be taken up for debate in the House of Commons, according to The Independent.

The petition launched by Scottish resident and longtime Trump critic Suzanne Kelly blasts Trump for "unrepentant hate speech and unacceptable behavior" that "foments racial, religious and nationalistic intolerance which should not be welcome in the U.K."

It reads in part:

“The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. This same principle should apply to Donald J Trump. We cannot see how the United Kingdom can condone his entry to the country when many people have been barred for less.

If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the ‘unacceptable behavior’ criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful.”

The petition is not currently available for additional signatures. MSNBC reports that it's being reviewed by Parliament's petitions committee. A message online says it will be back after the review, if it meets standards.

Such a ban would not be without precedent. Earlier this year, rapper Tyler the Creator was barred from entering the country for a string of tour dates due to some of his lyrics. Anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller was also banned in 2013.

"The Home Secretary will seek to exclude an individual if she considers that his or her presence in the U.K. is not conducive to the public good," a spokesman told HuffPost U.K. at the time. "We condemn all those whose behaviors and views run counter to our shared values and will not stand for extremism in any form."

The Trump petition may be about more than just the Republican frontrunner's Islamophobic rhetoric; Kelly was one of the voices in opposition to the real estate tycoon's controversial golf course just outside Aberdeen.

Kelly has also launched a petition calling on Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen to revoke an honorary degree bestowed on Trump in 2010 -- a move so controversial at the time that a former principal of the university angrily returned his own honorary degree.

"Mr. Trump is simply not a suitable person to be given an honorary degree and he should not be held up as an example of how to conduct business," David Kennedy, principal of Robert Gordon University from 1987 to 1997, told the BBC.

"I can think of no better way to express my anger at the decision to honor Mr. Trump than to return my own honorary doctorate to the university," Kennedy said. "I would not want to hold the award after Mr. Trump has received his."

(h/t Raw Story)

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