While both criticizing Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" which came after the San Bernardino shootings in December, Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have rejected calls for him to be banned from Britain, saying it would be better to educate him about the country's multicultural society.
'Why Should We Make an Exception?'
However, others have taken a much harder stance against Trump's comments, calling on MPs and the Home Office to not give Trump preferential treatment and ban him for his divisive comments.
#Trump is crucifying America's image abroad.God help us if he gets anywhere near the Oval office. View from UK pic.twitter.com/nw2QUeI7Ak
— JeremySmyles (@JeremySmyles) January 12, 2016
"The law needs to be applied to everyone equally and the Home Office has previous in banning hate preachers engaging in rhetoric similar to that of Trump," Muslim Labour MP Tulip Siddiq told the Telegraph newspaper.
"To argue there is no precedent for banning him does not stand up to decisions taken by this Home Secretary, or indeed previous Labour Home Secretaries.
"The real question is — Why should we make an exception for billionaire politicians? We should not."
Siddiq's calls were backed by fellow Muslim and Scottish National Party MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who called for the Home Office to be consistent and ban Trump on the ground of hate speech.
"What I'll be doing today is asking [Home Secretary] Theresa May to exercise consistency in her approach to people who preach hatred," she told BBC Radio 4.
"Now the Home Secretary has banned, by her own admission, 84 people in the past few years and my suggestion is that Donald Trump's remarks mean he should be number 85 because he has incited hatred and we actually now know his words have been used by ISIS/Daesh to convert people to their cause."
Banning Trump Would Increase Publicity '100-Fold'
Despite some calling for Trump to be banned, others agree with the prime minister and Corbyn that preventing him from entering the country would be a step too far.
Liberal-Democrats leader Tim Farron said banning Trump would be "just the kind of attention this publicity junkie would want."
"Get him over here and put him on a platform so his odious and, frankly, weird views can be shot down in flames."
Labour MP Paul Flynn echoed Farron's sentiments in an interview with the BBC, saying that trying to ban Trump would lead to a "100-fold" increase in publicity, as was the case when the UK attempted and failed to ban controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders form the country in 2009.
"I agree entirely that he's been guilty of hatred in his language, worse than many of the other people who have been banned. But sadly, a ban would perversely help him in America and that's where opinion matters. It would probably give him a halo of victimhood as a martyr and perversely that will attract more support for him."
MPs will debate the petition calling for Trump to be banned from the UK for three hours on Monday.
