Theresa May savages Corbyn over Trump travel ban: He can lead a protest, I'm leading a country

Theresa May took Jeremy Corbyn to task after the Labour leader challenged her over the UK government's response to Donald Trump's travel ban at prime minister's questions (PMQs) on Wednesday (1 February).

"He can lead a protest, I'm leading a country," May declared as Conservative MPs erupted in cheers.

The prime minister, echoing the words of her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, also condemned the travel ban, which stops people from travelling to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days, as "divisive and wrong".

But Corbyn hit back, asking why May did not immediately condemn Trump's actions just a day after the leaders met in Washington.

"The prime minister said 'the US is responsible for US policy on refugees'," he said.

"But surely it is the responsibility of all of us to defend the 1951 Refugee Convention, which commits this country, the US and 142 other states to accept refugees without regard to their race, religion or country of origin. President Trump has breached that convention, why didn't she speak out?"

May added: "If he's asking me whether I had the advance notice of the ban on refugees, the answer is no," she added.

"If he's asking me if I had advance noticed that the executive order could affect British citizens, the answer is no.

"If he's asking me whether I had advance notice of the travel restrictions, the answer is we all did because President Trump said he was going to do this in his election campaign."

The comments come after thousands of people protested outside Downing Street, Westminster, on Monday in a bid to get May to revoke her state visit invitation to Trump.

The Republican's meeting with The Queen in June has also seen more than 1.5 million people sign a petition against the visit. MPs will debate the online document in Westminster Hall on 20 February, the cross-party Petitions Committee has announced.

Elsewhere, May confirmed that the government will publish its Brexit White Paper on Thursday. The PM said the status of EU nationals in the UK will be addressed in the much-awaited document.

"I would like to confirm my intention and expectation that we will be able to offer that reassurance to EU nationals living in the UK," she said.

"But I do also want to see reassurance offered to UK nationals living in the EU. I hope and will be working to try to ensure that this is an issue that we can deal with at a very early stage in the negotiations."

The development comes as MPs continue to debate the government's Article 50 bill. A vote is expected in the House of Commons around 19:00 GMT.

The government is hoping to pass the draft legislation through parliament by 7 March and trigger Brexit talks on 9 March.