House of Lords
Parliament

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Labour's Lord Alli admits he is glad that the House has emptied somewhat as he wants to make a confession.

"I like Theresa May - there I've said it," he says.

However "in the same vein of honesty" he adds that he does not believe Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and David Davis have the skills needed to successfully negotiate a trade deal with the EU.

He wants Parliament to have the power to send the government back to the negotiating deal if a satisfactory agreement is not reached, he says.

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbencher and former Permanent Secretary at the Treasury Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court quotes Macbeth: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."

The sooner there is certainty, he argues, the better.

However, he tells peers he is not yet sure whether he will support amendments to the bill and worries that leaving scrutiny to the Great Repeal Bill "will be too late".

House of Lords
Parliament

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Labour's Lord Campbell-Savours tells the House that he differs from many of his colleagues in that he voted leave in the referendum.

He argues that the dreams of a European Union were shattered by "German self interest, French intransigence, fraud and financial mismanagement in southern Europe."

He voted for Brexit, he explains, in the hope that it would provoke an argument over Europe's direction of travel - "to be followed by a second referendum".

The UK's threat of withdrawal, he believes, will force Europe to reorder itself.

Yes, high risk, he acknowledges, but he argues that the people of Europe want change. 

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have been considering Lords amendments to the HS2 Bill this afternoon and have now moved on to the adjournment debate.

It's being led by Labour's Ian Murray, on the subject of motor neurone disease research, and the life of Gordon Aikman.

Mr Aikman was a prominent motor neurone disease (MND) campaigner.

Mr Aikman, who raised more than £500,000 with his "Gordon's Fightback, external" campaign, died aged 31 on 3 February.

Westminster Hall

Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan gives the government's response to the petition, claiming that the state visit was part of plans for strengthening bi-lateral relations with the United States.

As he is speaking, the crowd can be heard screaming outside. SNP MP Alex Salmond interrupts to claim he is having trouble hearing the minister over the noise. 

He says that both President Bush and President Obama were invited in their first terms, so it was "entirely appropriate" that President Trump be given the office as a democratically elected leader of the UK's greatest ally. 

In terms of procedure, he points out that the Foreign Office chairs a committee along with the Royal household for state visits, brushing aside claims that the Queen would have been caught off-guard. 

Her concludes the debate by saying: "This is a special moment for the special relationship.The visit should happen. The visit will happen," and when it does, "he expects the UK will extend a polite and generous welcome to President Donald Trump."

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbencher and Professor of Contemporary British History Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield quotes Friedrich Nietzsche: "The state is the coldest of all cold monsters."

Adapting this he describes the bill as representing "the coldest of cold print".

However, he says the government needs to "crack on" with the referendum.

He uses his speech to "salute" those who devoted "heart and sinew" to the "doomed" cause of getting the UK into the European community. 

Westminster Hall

Shadow Foreign Office minister Catherine West gives the official opposition's position on President Trump's state visit. 

She says that inviting President Trump in light of the Muslim ban "sends the wrong message to the White House", and claims that other leaders - including Germany's Angela Merkel - have been stronger in "taking [him] to task".

She also believes that a mechanism should be in place to approve a state visit, given that the Muslim ban was announced within hours of the prime minister offering the visit. This would allow for more time to scrutinise such decisions.

She concludes that she agrees with the Speaker of the House of Commons statement last week, against President Trump addressing Parliament.

House of Lords
Parliament

I do not want my name recorded in supporting the removal of my country from the European Union, says Labour's Lord Whitty.

The EU, he argues is the "best hope for peace, security and justice in a continent which has been scarred by war".

House of Lords
Parliament

Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey recalls his own experience negotiating the Good Friday Agreement.

He tells peers that if, during the negotiations, his opponents had known what the other side's bottom lines were "we would never have got an agreement". 

Ministers must be free to negotiate, he says. 

Westminster Hall

Labour's Liam Byrne says that a US president's state visit should offer "shared stand" on issues of democracy and human rights, but will instead "be a showcase of what actually divides us".

He believes that the level of protests on his arrival will make those taking place outside in Parliament Square tonight "look like a tea-party". 

This, he says, will make US-UK relations worse, not better. 

Despite this, it is too late to cancel the state visit now but he says that it should be made as short as possible. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, AFP/Getty

The anti-Trump brigade is out in full force.

Labour's Daniel Zeichner says that "turning to such an unstable regime, it is really a big risk". He calls President Trump a "disgusting" man and says "don't welcome bigots".

The SNP's Carol Monghan reiterates her belief that "xenophobic, sexist and rascist rhetoric" had "been legitimised". 

She asks MPs in the committee room to stop and listen to the protests outside. 

The Liberal Democrats' Alistair Carmichael says that the prime minister's judgement was "catastrophically wrong" in inviting the President. 

Needless to say, these MPs do not believe that President Trump's should be invited for a state visit. 

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BBC News is live at the Stop Trump rally in Parliament Square in London.

It is being held to coincide with the parliamentary debate about Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK.

The group One Day Without Us has organised demonstrations nationwide to celebrate the contribution of immigrants to British Society.

You can watch what's going on here, external on Facebook live.

House of Lords
Parliament

Criticism now from Baroness Walmsley: a Lib Dem peer who says there was incivility and a lack of respect in Lord Forsyth's speech on the Lib Dem stance.

She says she will be supporting amendments on EU nationals in the UK, access to the single market and on an amendment which will allow the British people to have the final say on the deal the government reaches.

"All those most affected should have a say," she says, including citizens who were excluded in the previous referendum, such as EU nationals and 16 and 17-year-olds.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean says that Brexit campaigners have been abused for campaigning for leave.

He says there is a four-letter word which should concern the Lords: duty. "The bill before us has been passed unamended and overwhelmingly," he says. 

The bill is simply to give the power to trigger Article 50, and he says and it should be passed unamended by the Lords.

"We are having a great stramash" on doing what the two party leaders (he refers to David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn) wanted to do the day after the referendum vote, he says.

He has some choice words for the Lib Dems (or, as he insists, "liberals"), their leader Tim Farron, and the party's opposition to Brexit, saying they have come to the debate "boasting" they will use the Lords to challenge the verdict of the referendum and call for a second poll. 

He says MPs who voted for the bill in the Commons, despite voting remain personally, put democracy above their own personal beliefs.

Westminster Hall

Conservative Anne Main says that "megaphone diplomacy is never right", claiming that calmer diplomacy is what is needed. 

She says that the Queen would not have been unaware of the visit, as it was offered in her name, and she will be able to act in her capacity as a "soft power". 

She accuses those calling for the state visit to be cancelled are "stirring up the bees nest", rather than respecting the wishes of the American people.

By engaging the President, we will be able to criticise individual policies as they come up, she says. 

"It is a dangerous road to head down" if we try to ignore him as we will reduce our ability to ask for help. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Boswell of Ayno, a non-affiliated peer who chairs the Lords EU committee, says the committee has published a series of reports on Brexit and specific policy areas.

He says the committee has stressed the importance of parliamentary accountability during the process. Accountability after the fact is not sufficient, he says.

The government now says Parliament is to get as much information as the European Parliament, he says, but it is not clear what that encompasses. 

"I think the government would be wise to make a virtue of necessity and involve Parliament from the outset," he says.

"As chairman of the European Union Committee, I feel obliged to support the government," he says, and if a material attempt to obstruct the bill is made, "I would vote for it to prevail," he concludes.

Westminster Hall

Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh believes it is improper of conservatives in this country to criticise conservatives in the United States. "He's just not my type of conservative," he says. 

He believes that President Trump would never get elected in this country, but still needs to be listened to.

AS regards to President Trump's controversial "grab her by the pussy" comment, he argues that most people have made "ridiculous sexual comment sometime in their past", a statement which causes a stir in the room.

Labour's Chris Bryant agrees, but calls for greater scrutiny of those who are offered state visits in the future. Sir Edward Leigh agrees with this. 

He also uses his speech to highlight the inconsistency in criticism of state visits, citing previous visits by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, two Chinese premiers and Saudi princes.   

House of Lords
Parliament

Baroness Smith of Newnham - a Lib Dem peer - points out that the demographic of the Lords does not tend to include Generation X - those who were born after 1969 - and so the debate is skewed.

She says that many of the messages she has received concerning the Brexit debate come from the "disenfranchised", such as EU nationals living in the UK, who did not vote in the referendum.

She goes on to call for certainty for EU nationals who are living in the UK. "We need to take the lead," she says.

As she finishes, there's a little scattering of applause from the public gallery - which a few of their lordships appear to frown about.