Britain says U.S. immigration curbs do not apply to UK travellers

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's travel restrictions do not apply to people travelling from the United Kingdom regardless of their nationality or place of birth, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday. Trump's executive order barring refugees and people from seven mainly Muslim countries has caused a global outcry, and in Britain over 1.3 million people have called for his state visit to the United Kingdom to be cancelled. In a statement to parliament, Johnson said London had received assurances from the U.S. administration that people with British citizenship who were also nationals of one of the seven countries would not be affected by the measure. There was confusion earlier when an urgent notice was posted on the website of the U.S. embassy in London advising nationals and dual nationals of the seven countries that visa issuance had been suspended and they should not schedule a visa appointment. That notice later disappeared from the website, and Johnson told parliament that the embassy guidance had been updated. He said Trump's approach to immigration was not one the British government would take, calling it highly controversial, divisive and discriminatory. But he defended the planned state visit as "totally right". On Friday, the new Republican president put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travellers from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Estelle Shirbon in London; editing by Stephen Addison)