For British Prime Minister Margaret May, "being friends" with Donald Trump may have a a high cost.  On Monday, thousands of people demonstrated against President Trump outside the UK Parliament in London hoping that British lawmakers would deny him a formal state visit.  A day before, the Parliament received an online petition -signed by almost two million Britons - to deny Trump's visit as it would “cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the queen.”

According to The Guardian, British MPs lined up on Monday to pour scorn on a “racist and sexist” Donald Trump, who they said should not be allowed to come to Britain for a state visit because of the risk it would embarrass the Queen.

The US president was compared to a “petulant child” and had his intelligence questioned by MPs during a three-hour debate triggered after more than 1.8m people signed a petition urging Theresa May to cancel her invitation.

However, the prospect of Mr. Trump’s visit has stirred great passion in Britain. The online petition does not call for Mr. Trump to be barred from Britain altogether, only that his visit be a political one, without the involvement of Queen Elizabeth II.

The queen, acting as always on the recommendation of the government, has in the past received other contentious leaders, like President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. 

British Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan responded to the debate for the government, saying: "We believe it is absolutely right that we should use all the tools at our disposal to build common ground with President Trump, reported the BBC.

"The visit should happen. The visit will happen. And when it does, I trust the United Kingdom will extend a polite and generous welcome to President Donald Trump, " he said, while outside, a  group of anti-Trump protesters gathered in Parliament Square.

Similar demonstrations were organised elsewhere around the UK, including in Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Newcastle.