Monday 29 April 2019 2:11 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:18 am

British voters torn over President Donald Trump’s UK state visit in June

With President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK in June already provoking fights between politicians, a new poll shows voters are as split as their Westminster representatives.

Just under half of the UK (47 per cent) is opposed to Trump's visit in June, according to Yougov, and only 29 per cent want him back after his first trip to Britain as US President sparked widespread protests last year.

While 51 per cent of Conservative voters are in support of Trump's trip across the pond, only 13 per cent of Labour voters and 14 per cent of Liberal Democrats feel the same way, Yougov's survey of 5,791 British adults showed.

Both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Lib Dem leader Vince Cable have refused to attend a state banquet in Trump's honour when he comes to the UK between 3 and 5 June.

Meanwhile, more than 50 Labour MPs have signed a backbench motion calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to cancel Trump’s state visit, citing his “misogynism, racism and xenophobia” as reasons he should not be given an official welcome to the UK.

Yougov found that while 46 per cent of Leave voters are in favour of the state visit, just 15 per cent of Remain supporters are looking forward to it.

President Trump’s visit will include attending an event in Portsmouth, to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings and liberation of Nazi-occupied France, but it remains to be seen whether the president will be permitted to address Parliament.

The Conservative party chairman and Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, said: “Clearly there is a strong case for a speech by the president particularly on such an important anniversary.”

But on his last visit, the US head of state was effectively banned from addressing Parliament by Commons Speaker John Bercow, who said at the time that such an opportunity was not automatic but an “earned honour”.

Bercow has also declined his invitation to the state dinner in June.