--- title: Donald Trump Birmingham Plans Could Lead to Wide UK Protests description: News that President Donald Trump might move his state visit to Birmingham, in the U.K.'s midlands, from London, has been met with anger. canonical: https://time.com/4668898/donald-trump-birmingham-visit-protests/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-13T17:54:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:12.105Z article:section: Politics og:title: Birmingham's Not Happy That Trump's State Visit May be There og:description: "We need to come together as a country - we need a unifier, not a divider" og:url: https://time.com/4668898/donald-trump-birmingham-visit-protests/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta59670ed4fa33da6/6988ba11cf40a884c4c46727/gettyimages-634609606.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Arrives In West Palm Beach With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe For Weekend At Mar-a-Lago og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Birmingham's Not Happy That Trump's State Visit May be There twitter:description: "We need to come together as a country - we need a unifier, not a divider" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta59670ed4fa33da6/6988ba11cf40a884c4c46727/gettyimages-634609606.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lawmakers in Birmingham, U.K. Aghast at Reports of Donald Trump Stadium Rally > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: John Bercow, Britain's Speaker of the House, Doesn't Want Trump to Address Parliament [Watch (HLS stream): John Bercow, Britain's Speaker of the House, Doesn't Want Trump to Address Parliament](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KIT3YeVu.m3u8) (0:27)  _Published 2017-02-06. British lawmaker John Bercow, Speaker of the U.K.'s House of Commons has said he would oppose President Donald Trump addressing Parliament during his state visit._ by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Feb 13, 2017 5:54 PM UTC  President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International airport as they prepare to spend part of the weekend with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago resort on February 10, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Florida. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International airport as they prepare to spend part of the weekend with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe at Mar-a-Lago resort on February 10, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Feb 13, 2017 5:54 PM UTC News that [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4654816/donald-trump-uk-protests-british-signs/) might address crowds of supporters at a stadium in the city of Birmingham has been met with anger by a number of MPs, activists and ordinary “Brummies,” as the locals are nicknamed. According to the U.K.’s [_Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/11/donald-trumps-state-visit-uk-may-moved-london-brexit-heartland/) and others in the British media, the White House is considering moving the locus of Trump’s state visit from London to the country’s second most populous city. Trump would reportedly host a rally in a large venue such as Birmingham’s [National Exhibition Centre](http://www.thenec.co.uk/), with profits from £10 ($12.50) tickets going to a charity for the British armed forces. TIME contacted the White House for comment, but did not hear back. The hope is that Birmingham, where [50.5% of the city voted to leave](http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/eu-referendum-results-birmingham-vote-11510427) the European Union last summer (as opposed to just 40.1% of London), might be more receptive and sympathetic toward the President than the capital, where [thousands protested](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-protesters-london-uk-state-visit-invitation/) the travel ban and demanded that the British government [withdrew Trump’s state visit invitation](https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171928/). “It would be his biggest rally with 85,000 people coming together to celebrate the US-UK special relationship,” a source told the _Telegraph_. “If he is not speaking to the Houses of Parliament, let’s go to the people.” But a number of Birmingham MPs and councillors have made it clear that President Trump would not be welcome in the city, despite Birmingham’s slim pro-Brexit majority. Liam Byrne, a Labour MP for the city’s Hodge Hill, [launched a petition](http://liambyrne.co.uk/petition/ban-donald-trump-from-birmingham/) on Sunday calling for Trump to be banned from the city. The petition had reached 1,406 signatures at the time of writing. “President Trump would be a very divisive influence,” Byrne told TIME during a telephone interview. “If we thought we could take him out for a curry and show him the best of our city and change his views then we’d be rolling out the red carpet. But we know it won’t be like that; there’d be a massive security bill, huge demonstrations and it wouldn’t be good for the U.S./U.K. relationship.” > [](https://twitter.com/LiamByrneMP/status/830698009872781312) Byrne added that he believed Trump’s visits would lead to the “biggest protests ever seen” in the country. “Birmingham is in the center of England, it’s a good place to get to and protest,” he told TIME. “The feeling here post-Brexit is that we need to come together as a country at the moment – we need a unifier, not a divider.” When asked why he thought Birmingham was being discussed as a potential location, Byrne said: “I have no idea. It sounds bananas to me.” Kerry Jenkins, a Labour councillor for Birmingham’s Hall Green Ward, told TIME that she felt the city’s “diverse communities” would never forgive the council if they welcomed Trump with open arms. “Trump’s comments are out there for all to see, full of hatred, full of an ideology based on discrimination with just one intent – to stir up racial hatred,” she said. “I am certain that our diverse communities will take to the streets in their hundreds of thousands and be supported by many more if this visit does indeed take place.” Not everyone is opposed to Trump touching down in Birmingham, however. John Lamb, a spokesperson for the city’s Chamber of Commerce, told the [_BBC_](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38954485) that the Chamber would not be against a visit. “The business community is quite fascinated by Donald Trump and he is a democratically-elected leader; a world leader – an important world leader- so why not?” Lamb said. ## Transcript Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall. 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