Londoners were in for the shock of their lives today after a special guest made an unannounced appearance in the capital.
Just hours after cancelling his visit to the UK amid fears he wouldn’t be made welcome, Donald Trump was spotted outside the US Embassy in Battersea.
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But don’t worry, it wasn’t the real US President rowing back on his promise not to visit after calling Nine Elms an ‘off location’.
Instead Madame Tussauds transported a waxwork model of the billionaire four-and-a-half miles from its Marylebone site.
Marsha De Cordova, Labour MP for Battersea, claimed Mr Trump cancelled his visit because he is ‘scared’ of peaceful demonstrators opposing his views.
She said: ‘We welcome the fact that Donald Trump isn’t coming to London next month and coming to Battersea to open the embassy.’
Ms De Cordova said his tweet blaming his predecessor Barack Obama for the embassy move was ‘pretty inaccurate’.
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She added: ‘Trying to diss Battersea clearly indicates he’s never been here and doesn’t know anything about my constituency.
‘We are 15 minutes away from the heart of Britain’s democracy – the Houses of Parliament and Westminster.’
Claire Treacy, from Madame Tussauds, said: ‘We’ve got such a great figure in our Trump.
‘Mr Trump is always welcome to come and visit his figure here in the UK.’
His comments were slammed by people near the site.
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Rachael Basak, 34 from South East London, said she was glad Trump had called off the trip.
‘His values do not reconcile with London values- we’re diverse, we recognise and value everybody irrespective of where they are from,’ she said.
Mark Wright, 29, also from South East London said Trump’s tweet was ‘a load of rubbish’.
He said: ‘Give it another five years. When it’s developed, you’ll see that it’s a prime location rather than an “off location”.
‘I think it’s important that we take on the public’s opinion that we don’t think he should be coming over but we also have to be mindful of the UK/US relationship because that’s going to be vital post-Brexit.’
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METRO
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