Around 15,000 Barnet residents come from countries affected by Donald Trump’s immigration ban.

This weekend, the US president issued an executive order freezing travel to America from the Muslim-majority counties Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.

Due to the number of Barnet residents who originate from the seven countries, the Labour opposition group at the council filed an emergency motion to discuss how they will be affected.

Labour leader and Coppetts councillor Barry Rawlings said: “This ban on people entering the US who are from seven Muslim-majority countries has been widely condemned.

“The policy targets people of the Muslim faith, an act which is immoral, illegitimate, may be unconstitutional and will have the perverse effect of increasing hostility towards the United States and the west.

READ MORE: Barnet MPs Mike Freer, Matthew Offord and Theresa Villiers condemn Donald Trump's Muslim ban but support state visit to UK

“We need to understand exactly how this affects the thousands of Barnet residents who directly originate from these countries, so we can offer assistance and fight for their rights.”

The Labour group hoped the council would discuss it when they sat for their meeting last night (January 31), but they voted not to discuss it.

As the motion was submitted after the deadline, councillors were made to vote on whether they would agree to suspend procedure rules in the constitution to debate the issue at short notice.

When David Longstaff, mayor of Barnet, called for a vote the motion was rejected by the majority and the issue was not discussed.