More than a million Londoners look set to protest at Donald Trump’s visit to the UK after a new poll found 13% of the city’s residents are ‘likely’ to join the demonstrations.
A new YouGov/QueenMaryLondon poll, shared with HuffPost UK, found that more than one in 10 of the capital’s 8 million residents were poised to turn out against the U.S. president next month.
The survey also found that one in five (20%) 18-24 year-olds expect to march on the streets during the state visit.
Overall, Londoners of all ages oppose Trump’s trip by a margin of more than two-to-one, with 54% against it and just 24% supporting it.
Trump arrives in the UK on June 3 and his three-day visit will include a banquet at Buckingham Palace, talks with Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street and a trip to Portsmouth to mark 75 years since the D-Day landings of World War Two.
The president and first lady Melania Trump will formally be guests of the Queen, and his trip to the palace and to No.10 is expected to be accompanied by one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in the UK.
When Trump staged a ‘working visit’ last year, around 100,000 protestors turned out to greet him, with giant ‘Trump baby’ balloon launched over Parliament Square.
But events in the capital were kept to a minimum last time, with Trump carefully helicoptered to Windsor Castle, Blenheim Palace and the PM’s Chequers country retreat to avoid the crowds.
With a state visit making London the focus for the trip, the new poll of Londoners suggests that the scale of protests will be even larger.
When asked how likely or unlikely they were to take part in organised protests, 13% said they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ likely to protest, with 16% of Labour supporters and 20% of Lib Dems saying they would turn out. Overall, some 77% said they were unlikely to take part in demos.
Some 54% of all Londoners are opposed to the Trump trip in principle, with 70% of Labour voters and 77% of Lib Dem voters against it. Even 26% of Tory voters were opposed to it.
HuffPost UK revealed last week that the government has now abandoned any attempt to allow Trump to address both Houses of Parliament during his trip.
He will be denied the historic honour of making a speech in Westminster Hall, following opposition from Commons Speaker John Bercow and Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn to his ‘racism and sexism’.
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