The high-profile visit coincides with a U.K. parliamentary recess — potentially helping sidestep a diplomatic row. Britain’s MPs, who have mixed views of Trump, will be out of Westminster, with some traveling to their annual party conferences.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer handed the invitation letter from King Charles to Trump during a high-stakes visit to the White House in February. The U.K. prime minister told Trump the second state visit would be “truly historic” and “unprecedented.” Second-term presidents have tended to be invited for lunch or tea with the monarch, rather than given the full pomp of a second state visit.
But some in the governing Labour Party have called for Trump to be deprived of the chance.
Labour MP Kate Osborne wrote to House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle in April asking him to stop Trump from addressing parliament, and tabled a parliamentary motion warning it would be “inappropriate for President Trump to address Parliament,” because of his record on “misogynism, racism and xenophobia.” It has been signed by 20 lawmakers.
It draws a stark contrast to French President Emmanuel Macron who addressed British lawmakers during his own state visit to the U.K. last week.
The House of Commons speaker’s office said: “Any request made to address the houses of parliament will be considered in the usual way.”
