BRITAIN could not have made it any clearer that we reject President Donald Trump’s brand of divisive politics. 

A 2016 petition to block Trump from receiving an official state visit to Britain received over 1.8 million signatures. 

During his last visit here, 250,000 people marched in London against Trump’s divisive politics and another 150,000 joined protests around Britain. 

More than a million Londoners, 13 per cent of the city, said they were ready to demonstrate against Trump’s visit this week, according to a recent YouGov survey.

Our close relationship with the United States has been and will always be important, regardless of any differences we may have with individual presidents. 

However, maintaining this relationship with the United States does not require an expensive and pompous state visit that will be used to boost the Trump family brand. 

The special relationship has been built on shared values such as freedom, tolerance and respect for human rights. It is therefore only right to oppose policies which run counter to those values.

Trump’s presidency has not been good for Britain. His needless trade war with China and tariffs on steel contributed to the recent British Steel crisis. 

He has disrespectfully intervened in our internal affairs by undermining the Prime Minister and endorsing divisive figures such as Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. 

He has also promoted a no-deal Brexit which would be disastrous for manufacturing industries and local businesses in my constituency of Lincoln. 

On the eve of his latest visit, Trump’s ambassador to Britain admitted that plans to privatise our NHS would be central to any post-Brexit free trade deal. 

As a former NHS nurse, I know that we simply cannot allow Trump and the next Tory leader, whoever that may be, to carve open our treasured universal healthcare service to profit-seeking private companies. 

As chair of the cross-party all-party parliamentary group for Cuba, I have been concerned by one of the countless examples of Trump’s dangerous foreign policy: deepening the US blockade on Cuba. 

The US blockade has now been in place for more than 56 years and has cost the Cuban economy over $933 billion. 

Trump’s belligerent government recently took the unprecedented step of implementing Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which significantly threatens foreign investments in the country. 

Trump has further tightened economic sanctions by blacklisting more Cuban companies and restricting travel to the island.

This is a non-partisan issue — the British government has made it clear that it is illegal for British companies to comply with the US blockade of Cuba and has opposed its latest acts of aggression. 

For 27 years, Britain has been among the United Nations members that vote every year to end the blockade — last year the motion passed 189 in favour to two against. 

But, as with climate change and many other crucial issues, Trump’s government refuses to listen to the international community. 

Opposing Trump does not just mean rejecting the sexist, bigoted individual, but about taking a stand against what he represents. 

Trump is the unofficial figurehead of a dangerous, reactionary right-wing global movement which poses a grave threat to human rights and democracy across the world. 

In Latin America, Trump has befriended the homophobic right-wing presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. 

His former chief of staff, the white nationalist Steve Bannon, has attempted to spread his racist populism across Europe through meetings with politicians, including Nigel Farage, whose policies create division and disharmony within our communities.

Those protesting at Donald Trump’s state visit reject the intolerance and inequality which he represents. I stand in full solidarity with all those protesting against Trump this week, and with all those he has threatened and attacked in the US and around the world.