Boris Johnson calls for Brits to be exempt from Donald Trump's US travel ban

US talks: Boris Johnson is involved in talks with Donald Trump's administration to ensure Brits are not affected by the travel ban
PA Wire
Jamie Bullen30 January 2017
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Boris Johnson has called on Donald Trump’s administration to exempt Brits with dual citizenship from the US travel ban.

The Foreign Secretary is locked in talks with Mr Trump’s senior adviser adviser Jared Kushner and chief strategist Stephen Bannon to ensure Britons are not affected by the controversial policy.

It comes after Theresa May ordered Mr Johnson and Home Secretary Amber Rudd to urgenty contact their American counterparts about the ban.

Downing Street sources said the move showed how seriously she was taking the issue after she was blasted for refusing to criticise Mr Trump at a press conference in Ankara.

Mr Johnson branded President Trump's controversial policy "divisive and wrong", and criticised the decision to "stigmatise" people based on their nationality.

Sir Mo Farah, who was born in Somalia, has spoken out against the ban .
AFP/Getty Images

Citizens from seven mainly Muslim countries - Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - have been barred temporarily along with all refugees.

The Foreign Secretary said: "We will protect the rights and freedoms of UK nationals home and abroad. Divisive and wrong to stigmatise because of nationality."

Foreign Office officials have been speaking to officials in the US State Department overnight.

Mrs May faced a backlash after she chose not to criticise the President over the ban when repeatedly questioned about the policy a visit to Turkey.

MP Nadhim Zahawi speaks about Donald Trump's border clampdown on the Andrew Marr show
PA

No 10 later said the Prime Minister did "not agree" with the policy and would act to help UK citizens.

Somalia-born Olympian Sir Mo Farah, who lives in America, told how he faced having to tell his children he could be stopped from returning home.

He said: "I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years - working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home.

"Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome.

"It's deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that daddy might not be able to come home - to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice."

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who was born in Baghdad in Iraq, said he felt demeaned and discriminated against after being told he would be hit by the ban.

Demo: Protesters shout slogans during anti-refugee ban protests.
REUTERS

"For the first time in my life last night I felt discriminated against, it's demeaning, it's sad," he told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show."

Thousands of demonstrators are planning to protest against the ban outside Downing Street and across the country on Monday from 6pm.

A march organised by a coalition of groups, including Stand Up to Racism and the Muslim Council of Britain, is due to begin at the US embassy next Saturday.

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