MEMBERS OF UK PARLIAMENT DISAGGRE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP'S UK OFFICIAL VISIT

OBBYOPSY REPORTS/ LEAVE A COMMENT

US President Donald Trump was accused of behaving "like a petulant child," during a debate in the British parliament about the controversial decision to invite him on a state visit to the UK so early in his term.

The comment arose as members of Parliament were discussing a petition calling for the trip to be downgraded because of Trump's "well-documented misogyny and vulgarity."

Opening the largely symbolic debate in Westminster Hall, Labour MP Paul Flynn said: "We all in this room hold in great respect the US presidency, their constitution, their history," and that there was "no question of any disrespect towards that country.

But Flynn -- who described Trump's intellectual capacity as "protozoan" -- argued that to grant the honor of a state visit to a president who had acted "like a petulant child" would send the message that Britain approved of his behavior and comments.

Labour MP David Lammy said it was to be expected that the US President would be invited to the UK, but that offering Trump a full state visit after only seven days in power was not acceptable.

He said that for the country to make such an invitation was to "abandon all its principles," and suggested that the move came because the government was desperate to make trade deals.

"We didn't do this for Kennedy, we didn't do this for Truman, we didn't do this for Reagan, but for this man ... we say, 'Please come and we will lay on everything, because we are so desperate for your company,'" he said. "I think this country is greater than that."

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