The debate came after some 575,000 people signed a petition on the parliament's website, with 43,000 supporting an alternative petition not to ban Trump.

British lawmakers spent three hours bashing U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over his postions including immigration and a ban on all Muslims from the U.S. Bruce Harrison joins me now in the studio.

But many Conservatives criticised the debate, saying MPs were playing into Mr Trump's hands by fuelling the publicity over his comments while also claiming attempts to ban him go against British traditions of freedom of speech.

Even though the Labour Party spokesman on home affairs, Jack Dromey, argued that Trump shouldn't be "allowed within a 1,000 miles of our shore", most members of Parliament wanted Trump to visit the United Kingdom, either to answer for his comments or to possibly meet British Muslims.

Labour MP Paul Flynn said that the "great danger" in attacking Trump was that "we can fix on him a halo of victimhood". It says that Mr. Trump's proposal to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the United States amounts to "hate speech".

Dr Sarah Woollaston, a Conservative MP, said: "Just reflect on the consequences of your kind of religious bigotry, think again".

"The real catalyst for it was when I saw him mocking the journalist, and then trying to turn it around and asking The New York Times to apologize to him [Trump], which of course it didn't", Kelly said in an interview with The Student, a university newspaper based in her hometown of Aberdeen.

In a statement she said: "It is absurd that valuable parliamentary time is being wasted debating a matter raised as part of the American Presidential election". After more than half a million people signed the motion, the government was compelled to respond, and Members of Parliament (MPs) certainly did not pull punches.

Britain has the power to ban people with criminals records or who have "engaged in unacceptable behavior" from entering the country.

British MPs branded Republican candidate Donald Trump a buffoon, a demagogue and a wazzock.

Both Prime Minister David Cameron and Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn have rejected the idea of a ban.

Another Tory MP, Paul Scully, said people have ben excluded for hated and violence "but I've never heard of one for stupidity".

But he and other senior officials have said they do not think Trump should be banned.

"We shouldn't build him up with our attacks".

Gavin Newlands of the Scottish National Party called Trump an "idiot" whose popularity shows "how far the country of Lincoln and Roosevelt has fallen".

The Trump organization has said any action to restrict Donald Trump's travel would force them to end their current and future investments.