Stop Trump group aims for biggest protests in UK history

Activists, MPs and trade unions have vowed to hold the biggest demonstrations in UK history, outstripping the Iraq war protests, when Donald Trump makes his state visit later this year, and will kick off a programme of opposition to the US president with a migrant solidarity rally on Monday.

The Stop Trump coalition has hired a permanent staff member to coordinate protest efforts, with £16,000 raised via crowdfunding and £10,000 donated by the trade union Unison.

The demonstration on Monday is expected to draw more than 10,000 people. It will coincide with a parliamentary debate on a petition signed by 1.8 million people calling for the state visit to be cancelled in order to avoid embarrassment for the Queen.

In an official response rejecting the petition, the government said Trump should still be extended the “full courtesy” of a state visit.

Organisers said the protests, which they hope will last several days and follow Trump throughout his UK visit, would also “hold up a mirror to our own society” over the post-Brexit rise in hate crime and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“Our hope is that this mass movement can swing public opinion on a range of issues in a way that progressives have never managed before, and on issues on which we have been losing for decades,” the group’s spokesman said.

Several of the UK’s largest unions have given their backing to the march, including Unison, GMB and the National Union of Students. Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green party politicians will attend the protest on Monday and have leant their support to future demonstrations, organisers said.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “The planned state visit should clearly be cancelled and the invitation binned. It’s no wonder that almost 2 million people have signed a petition against the visit, and I’m proud that so many of my constituents have joined that call.

“On Monday evening I will be joining thousands of others in calling out Trump’s Islamophobia and racism and making clear that we expect our government to stand up to bigotry, not meekly back away from confronting it.”

Several organisers involved in the leftwing Labour movement Momentum are key organisers of the demonstration, as is the Guardian columnist and activist Owen Jones.

Charities who have given official backing include Friends of the Earth and Global Justice Now, as well as smaller UK groups such as Sisters Uncut and Bridges Not Walls, which organised anti-Trump banner drops on dozens of UK bridges including Westminster bridge on the day of the US president’s inauguration.

Organisers say the coalition is not controlled by one dominant organisation. “This is a new kind of coalition, not run by any group or controlled by a central leadership, and committed to a real diversity of tactics,” the group’s spokesman said.

Monday’s rally in Parliament Square will hear from speakers including Lucas, Labour’s Rushanara Ali and the comedian Shappi Khorsandi, who came to Britain as a child refugee from Iran.

Other more explicitly leftwing speakers include the former Respect leader Salma Yaqoob and the NUS president, Malia Bouattia, who attracted some controversy after her election for comments about the influence of “Zionist-led media outlets”.

Monday’s protest is a joint effort with the movement One Day Without Us, promoting the rights of migrants and refugees, which organisers said had been brought into sharp focus by several measures in the first month of Trump’s presidency – the Mexican border wall, a travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries and a halt to funding for NGOs that provide family planning services.

Kate Allen, UK director of Amnesty International, which is another NGO backing the coalition protests, said: “Some of our worst fears over what a Donald Trump presidency might lead to have already been realised.

“In the end the point isn’t whether Donald Trump gets the full-blown UK state visit treatment, it’s whether we raise our voice against this disastrous rollback of rights. It’s a major human rights fight, and one we can’t afford to lose.”