LONDON: A state visit to Britain by US President Donald Trump will happen next year, Sky News quoted senior government sources as saying on Tuesday.

Trump’s visit had been expected this year after British Prime Minister Theresa May invited the US leader to Britain during their first meeting in January in Washington.

But government officials had frequently said no date had been set.

Mr Trump accepted the Queen’s invitation for him to travel to Britain on a state visit when UK PM Theresa May visited Washington in January.

But the prospect of a state visit caused much controversy and reportedly led Mr Trump to change his mind.

It was said he did not want to visit while there was potential for protests against him.

In May, nearly two million people signed one of a number of petitions saying Mr Trump should not be invited to the UK on a state visit.

Senior politicians, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, called for the visit to be cancelled.

Questions were also raised as to why Mr Trump was invited so soon after taking office – it was two-and-a-half years into his first term before his predecessor Barack Obama came to the UK for his state visit.

Confirmation of Mr Trump’s visit had been expected in last month’s Queen’s Speech, in which the Queen set out her official plans for the year.

But there was no mention of it, and October was later mooted as a possible date.

The White House denied the reports that Mr Trump had reservations about visiting, saying they looked forward to working out a “mutually acceptable date”.

The Queen usually receives one or two heads of state a year. She has hosted 109 state visits since becoming monarch in 1952.