LONDON: US President Donald Trump’s planned state visit to Britain later this year got no mention in Queen Elizabeth II’s speech to parliament on Wednesday, raising doubts about whether it will go ahead.
The omission follows media reports that Trump no longer wants to come because of British public opposition to the visit, after a petition to cancel it received more than 1.8 million signatures.
It is customary for the monarch to list state visits in the annual speech, and Elizabeth did mention one such visit coming up next month by Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia.
But the speech glided over the invitation to Trump, which was widely criticised in Britain as an attempt by Prime Minister Theresa May to curry favour with the president during his first year in office.
British press reports after the speech said the visit was clearly now in jeopardy, but a spokesman for May insisted the invitation had not been revoked.
“The visit wasn’t mentioned in the Queen’s Speech because a date hasn’t been fixed yet,” the spokesman said.
