Donald Trump was branded "corrosive" and "petulant" on Wednesday after the property mogul threatened to withdraw all future investment in the UK should parliament move to ban the Republican presidential candidate from entering the country.
Westminster is scheduled to debate whether the billionaire should be barred later this month after the tycoon made a series of anti-Islamic comments on the campaign trail late last year.
The debate was sparked by an online petition, which gathered more than 500,000 signatories, calling for the bombastic businessman to be refused entry. Trump has several longstanding business interests in the UK, including Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and the Trump Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire.
The presidential frontrunner on the Trump International Golf Links golf course near Aberdeen in Scotland
Trump’s company said on Wednesday that MPs would be setting a "dangerous precedent" if they curtailed the businessman’s ability to travel to Britain, while alienating "many millions of United States citizens" who have made Trump the Republican Party frontrunner.
"Over the coming years, we intend to further develop Trump Turnberry and invest millions more at the site, creating sustained economic growth for South Ayrshire and Scotland,” a statement from The Trump Organization read.
“Additionally, we have plans to invest £500 million towards further development at the 1,400-acre Trump International Golf Links ... Any action to restrict travel would force The Trump Organization to immediately end these and all future investments we are currently contemplating in the United Kingdom."
The statement said banning the presidential hopeful would "create a dangerous precedent and send a terrible message to the world that the United Kingdom opposes free speech and has no interest in attracting inward investment."
“This would also alienate the many millions of United States citizens who wholeheartedly support Mr Trump and have made him the forerunner by far in the 2016 Presidential Election," the company warned.
Trump received international censure in December for proposing a ''total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on''. In the comments, which came in the wake of the Paris massacre, Trump claimed there were ''places in London and other places that are so radicalised that police are afraid for their own lives''.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called the remarks ''divisive, stupid and wrong'' however said he did not back a move to ban the businessman.
Trump poses for the media during the Women's British Open golf championship on Trump's Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland
On Wednesday, Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said Trump threatening to pull his money out of Britain "makes him look petulant and shows him to be the party clown that he is."
"I think it is terrible that the party of Abraham Lincoln is now the party of Donald Trump," he added.
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said: “The United Kingdom should not be held to ransom by corrosive billionaire politicians. In our country, money doesn't buy the right to sow discord and hatred in our communities. Donald Trump's threats about withholding investment from the UK is another desperate attempt to get in the headlines and anyone seeing his comments should reject his bigotry."
Labour MP Paul Flynn will lead the parliamentary debate on January 18.