I’ve already said my view in terms of the visit. What is clear over the last few days is that a ban was imposed without any rational basis. Of the terrorist attacks that have taken place in the US over the years, not one person has come from those seven countries—the twin towers people didn’t come from there. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, two countries where terrorists have come from, there is no ban on them, giving rise to the suspicion that it’s because of the business interests that exist in those countries by certain businesses in the US. So, there is no rationality to this policy. Secondly, of course, it was so badly executed that customs officials, border patrol officials—CBP officials as they’re called in America—had no idea how to implement it. It’s clear that the order was put in place without taking the advice of experts. One piece of advice I would give to the US President is this: it’s not a sign of weakness to take advice; it’s a sign of strength. Nobody can know everything, and we see the consequences as a result.

We know that British citizens were not able to travel to or through America as a result of what happened. There is the well-documented case of the Iranian vet who was stuck in Costa Rica. And we’re still not clear as to what the true position is. Sir Mo Farah—somebody who has done so much for British athletics, somebody who is such a great model for so many young men and women, was not sure whether he would be able to rejoin his family and children in the US as a result of this order. Despite the fact that that was made public, it took some hours for the UK Government to make representations, not just on his behalf, but on behalf of so many other people who are caught up as part of this ban. It’s not rational. It’s not justified. My experience of the people of America, as I’ve said publicly already, is that they are warm and courteous people; they are a welcoming people. This is not what America is about. People might say, ‘Well, why should America be judged on such high standards?’ It’s because of the high principles that the republic is built on. America is the leader of the free world, is the biggest democracy economically, though not in population, in the world, and it will be judged to higher standards than others, and it would expect itself to be so. What price now the words on the Statue of Liberty? So, my plea is quite simply this, that US security policy—and it is difficult, of course, in the modern world, to control security—should be based on rational decisions, based on the advice of experts, rather than taking a decision that appears to be easy, but proves to be hugely complicated and unfair in its execution.