MPs are trying to ban anti-gay preacher Franklin Graham from entering the country

An invitation to evangelical preacher Franklin Graham to speak at an event in Blackpool has sparked huge backlash.

A number of MPs, including a government minister, are pushing the home secretary to refuse Graham UK entry.

They argue that his anti-gay and Islamophobic remarks constitute hate speech, breaking British law.

A petition against him being granted a visa has already collected over 6,500 signatures.

Graham, who spoke at Trump’s inauguration, has previously said that gay people are causing a “moral 9/11.”

He has also said that gay people are the enemy and should be thrown out of church,and that LGBT activists help ‘sexual predators and perverts.’

“As a Christian and as a leader of a church that particularly welcomes LGBT people, I’m horrified that other local churches are inviting someone with this record of hate speech,” Nina Parker, petition organiser and pastor at Liberty church in Blackpool, told the Guardian.

In addition to homophobia, Graham has called Islam “an evil and very wicked religion,” linking all Muslims to extremist groups such as ISIS.

Parker says there was an “enormous amount of protest from Christians in the north-west,” against Graham’s planned appearance at the Lancashire Festival of Hope, at Blackpool Winter Gardens next September.

(Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)

Paul Maynard, Conservative Blackpool MP and a minister at the Department of Transport, has been among those calling on Amber Rudd to stop Graham’s entrance into the country.

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