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Donald Trump should address UK Parliament, says Jeremy Hunt

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Donald and Melania TrumpImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will visit the UK from 3 to 5 June

US President Donald Trump should address MPs during his state visit, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says.

A formal address to Parliament is associated with this type of visit, but some had questioned whether Mr Trump would be invited to do so.

Speaker John Bercow - who can veto who speaks to Parliament - previously said he would be "strongly opposed" to Mr Trump addressing MPs and peers.

But his office said a request for this would be "considered in the usual way".

The president's last visit to the UK was marked with demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable has said he has declined a invitation to a state banquet hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace for Mr Trump.

The president and First Lady Melania Trump will be guests of the Queen from 3 to 5 June.

They will attend a ceremony in Portsmouth to mark 75 years since the D-Day landings and Mr Trump will have official talks with the prime minister at Downing Street.

Asked at a Westminster event whether he would support an address to Parliament, Mr Hunt said: "Yes, I would. I think it is very important when you have a state visit by our closest and most important ally that we think about the office as much as the person.

"I hope we make the best possible welcome for President Trump. He is a controversial politician, but in the end his visit is about more than Trump's policies, it is about the alliance between the United States and United Kingdom that goes back many, many years."

The president was promised a state visit by Prime Minister Theresa May after he was elected in 2016 - but no date was set.

Mr Trump previously met the Queen at Windsor Castle when he came to the UK in July 2018 on a working visit.

Thousands of people demonstrated in London to voice their concerns and in Scotland people showed their displeasure both in Edinburgh and at Turnberry.

In a letter responding to an invitation to a state banquet organised by Buckingham Palace staff, Sir Vince Cable said: "I have taken the view that as a party leader I should not support state visits where the government of the day has issued invitations inappropriately.

"I did not accept an invitation to attend a state banquet with the King of Saudi Arabia for that reason."

But he said he was "hugely honoured" to have been invited.

Barack Obama became the first US president to address MPs and peers in Westminster Hall during a state visit in 2011.