British MPs are to hold a debate on a petition signed by more than half a million people calling for US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to be barred from Britain after his proposal to stop Muslims entering the United States.
The debate, called by the petitions committee of the lower house of parliament, will be held on January 18 but will not be followed by a vote.
The British government responds to all petitions that gain more than 10,000 signatures and topics are considered for parliamentary debate if they reach 100,000.
"By scheduling a debate ... the committee is not expressing a view on whether or not the government should exclude Donald Trump from the UK," said committee chairwoman Helen Jones.
"As with any decision to schedule a petition for debate, it simply means that the committee has decided that the subject should be debated," she said in a statement. "A debate will allow a range of views to be expressed."
Last month Trump, a billionaire developer and frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, prompted international outrage with his call for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States. His comments followed a shooting spree by two Muslims who the FBI said had been radicalised.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the comments were "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong".
Trump owns two golf courses in Scotland which he visited in 2015.
In the past, people have been banned from entering Britain for fostering hatred that might provoke inter-community violence.
The petition said: "If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the 'unacceptable behaviour' 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 the powerful."
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