Westboro Banned From UK

Westboro Baptist Church's Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper have been banned from entering the UK. Just yesterday we learned of their plans to protest a British staging of the Matthew Shepard play, The Laramie Project.

Two members of the Westboro Baptist Church, an American religious sect which calls for homosexuals to be killed, have been banned from entering the UK. Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper had planned to fly into Britain to protest against a play being put on by a gay youth group. The pair are members of the church, based in Kansas, which has been described as "the most evil religious sect in the world". Mr Phelps, 79, and his daughter Ms Phelps-Roper, 51, had targeted a performance of The Laramie Project, about the death of an American man killed for being homosexual.

They had announced that they would picket the play, which is due to be held at a school arts centre in Basingstoke, Hampshire, on Friday. But the pair will now be stopped by immigration officials if they arrive and placed straight on a flight back to the US. The ban comes after Dutch MP Geert Wilders was barred from the UK last week for his extremist views on Islam. A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has excluded both Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the UK. "Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities. The Government has made it clear it opposes extremism in all its forms.