THE Prime Minister should strongly reject Donald Trump’s travel ban on Muslims and postpone the American President’s state visit unless he back-pedals on the controversial policy, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister has revealed how she discussed the issue of Mr Trump in a one-to-one meeting with the Prime Minister before Joint Ministerial Committee talks in Cardiff.

Describing the President of the United States’ position on immigration as “deeply wrong”, Ms Sturgeon said that, under the current circumstances, his planned state to Britain would be “marred by the controversy”.

Read more: Ruth Davidson in plea to Donald Trump to reverse travel ban

“For a practical reason as well as the other reasons, it would be better to reconsider the timing of it,” she said.

Ms Sturgeon’s comments echoed those of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who said Theresa May would be “failing the British people” if she welcomed President Trump, as the Prime Minister defiantly stood by her decision to issue the invitation.

In the face of a 1.4 million-strong petition demanding the visit is scrapped, Ms May remained adamant at a press conference in Dublin yesterday that the trip would go ahead.

“The United States is a close ally of the United Kingdom,” said the Prime Minister, who became the first world leader to meet the new US president in the White House.

“We work together across many areas of mutual interest and we have that special relationship between us.

“I have issued that invitation for a state visit for President Trump to the United Kingdom and that invitation stands.”

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told MPs that there was “absolutely no reason” why the elected President of the US should not be afforded a state visit while critics insisted the Conservative Government had failed to stand up to the US with one MP branding Mrs May “Theresa the Appeaser”.

Mr Trump sparked global outrage on Friday night when, just hours after meeting Mrs May, he announced a temporary ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the US.

Read more: Ruth Davidson in plea to Donald Trump to reverse travel ban

Despite claims the travel restrictions were unconnected to ethnicity, the policy was swiftly dubbed a “Muslim ban”.

Mr Trump has since stood firm, insisting the ban is necessary needed to keep “bad dudes” out of the US.

But the timing of the announcement came as a huge embarrassment to Mrs May, who was also initially criticised for insisting that US immigration policy was a matter for the US.

It was not until Sunday that she ordered Mr Johnson to telephone the US to clarify the situation for UK citizens with dual nationality.

Last night, a further question mark hung over Mrs May’s trip to Washington, amid reports that she knew a ban was coming on Friday afternoon.

Ms Sturgeon said that she discussed Mr Trump’s proposed visit with Mrs May when they met for talks on Brexit in Cardiff.

Speaking afterwards, the First Minister said: “I don’t think it would be appropriate in these circumstances for the state visit to go ahead while these bans are in place, given the understandable concern that people have about them and the messages they send and the impact on people. I made both of those points clear to her.”

Ms Sturgeon also said that the UK should be stronger in its condemnation of the “deeply wrong” ban.

Read more: Ruth Davidson in plea to Donald Trump to reverse travel ban

“Introducing what is seen by many as a ban on Muslims, banning people because of their origin or their faith is deeply wrong and likely to be counter-productive in terms of the fight we all have an interest in against extremism and terrorism,” she said.

“These are issues that start to touch on moral issues that go beyond individual countries’ policies and we all have a duty in these instances to speak up when we consider values, that we all hold dear, to be under threat.

“As I said to the Prime Minister, many people would like to see her say something much more strong along those lines.”

Asked if she would be prepared to meet Mr Trump if he came to Scotland while in the UK, the First Minister said: “The relationship between Scotland and America is an important one. I’m not going to start getting into refusing to meet people, but equally, as I’ve said before, nor am I going to maintain diplomatic silences over things that are really important in a values and principles sense.”

Whitehall sources say that they expect Mr Trump to visit Scotland when the trip does go ahead later this year.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson has called President Trump’s travel ban “simply wrong”, but did not add her voice for calls for the visit to be scrapped.

Meanwhile, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev Dr Russell Barr, said he was “horrified” by the ban and that protests had his “full support”.

Mr Trump will be the first US President ever to be afforded a state visit in his first year of office.