Thousands sign petition to keep Trump from entering the UK

Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be banned from entering the UK.

It follows the Republican frontrunner's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".

Trump's comments were designed to capitalise on a shooting by a radicalised couple in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people. But they have drawn condemnation both at home and abroad.

In the UK, tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling on MPs to impose a bar on Trump. Click here to view the petition.

"The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech," the petition reads. "The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK.

"If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the 'unacceptable behaviour' criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful."

If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it could be debated in the Commons.

Across the Atlantic, the White House launched a rare attack on a presidential candidate as spokesman Josh Earnest called the proposal unconstitutional.

"What Donald Trump said disqualifies him from serving as president," said Earnest, describing the remarks as "offensive" and "toxic".

Trump has also earned the wrath of the United Nations. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the comments were "grossly irresponsible".

David Cameron called Trump's proposal "divisive and unhelpful", while senior politicians in France and Canada have spoken out too.

Muslim leaders in the US have also criticised the 69-year-old.

"ISIS is to Islam what Donald Trump is to American values: a complete distortion of everything that we as a country and a society stand for," said Sohaib Sultan, Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain at Princeton University.

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said the billionaire's comments aided terrorists.

"It's a shameful idea. It's also dangerous," she said.

"At a time when America should be doing everything we can to fight radical jihadists, Trump is supplying them with new propaganda."

Trump was unrepentant in a series of TV interviews on Tuesday. He compared his idea to the internment of Japanese and Germans during World War II by Franklin Roosevelt.

On the charge that he was aiding IS propaganda, he said: "I'm the worst thing that's ever happened to ISIS."