Donald Trump has been invited to address UK parliament, says Nigel Farage

Donald Trump has been invited to address the UK parliament next year, Nigel Farage has claimed, saying Britain must “roll out the red carpet” for the US president-elect.

The Reform UK leader said Lindsay Hoyle was an improvement on the previous Commons speaker, John Bercow, because he had already invited Trump to parliament next year. Farage told his Reform party’s Welsh rally: “I do think having Sir Lindsay Hoyle there as the speaker compared to that ghastly little pipsqueak Bercow that went before is an improvement.

“And indeed, he’s already invited Donald Trump to come and speak to both Houses of Parliament next year.”

Hoyle’s spokesperson and the Commons both declined to comment on the claim. Trump did not address parliament the first time he was president between 2016 and 2020 after Bercow made clear he was strongly opposed to the prospect.

Trump was invited to the UK for a state visit in 2017, but in an extraordinary intervention Bercow said he was against Trump addressing parliament as part of the visit.

The former speaker told MPs that addressing the Lords and the Commons was “an earned honour”, not an “automatic right”.