UK urged to deny entry to pro-Trump preacher who claims gay people ‘steal children’

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has been urged to block a visit from a US preacher who claims that gay people ‘steal children.’

Franklin Graham, the head of Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse, and the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, is set to visit the UK this weekend to attend the Lancashire Festival of Hope event in Blackpool.

His presence has been sharply criticised by local figures due to Graham’s archaic views.

Franklin Graham (Stephen Chernin/Getty)

Graham, who has close ties to the Trump administration and preached at his inauguration, has previously praised Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay laws and told crowds in Russia that homosexuals “take people’s children.”

He has also claimed there had been a “moral 9/11” in America due to homosexuals  and has declared that gay people are “the enemy” of civilisation.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden raised Graham’s views in a letter to Javid, warning his public comments are incompatible with UK hate speech laws.

In a letter shared with the Blackpool Gazette, the Labour MP said: “I have had a number of constituents, including local clergy and other faith leaders, who were alarmed and appalled by the derogatory and inflammatory views that Franklin Graham has expressed towards Muslims, members of the LGBT community and others.

“Blackpool welcomes every year millions of visitors of all faiths and none, as well as diverse families, members of the LGBT community and many different nationalities. Our residential community is similarly diverse.

“I’m therefore asking the Home Secretary to urgently consider stopping any further escalation of tension and hurt towards the groups he continues to attack in his preaching by barring his ability to speak at the Winter Gardens.”

Preacher Franklin Graham (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP/Getty)

• Dec 01

16 TV stars you grew up watching who later came out as LGBTQ+