Donald Trump’s company is vowing to revoke $1 billion in pledged investments if the United Kingdom bans the GOP presidential front-runner from its soil.
“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 company said in a statement Thursday, according to CNBC on Thursday.
{mosads}“Westminster 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,” it added referring to the U.K. Parliament.
The Trump Organization has pledged about $1.02 billion in investments for a pair of Scottish golf courses, the Trump Turnberry Resort and Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, CNBC reported, and has expressed interest in future investments.
The British Parliament announced Tuesday that it is formally debating whether to bar Trump from the U.K.
A petition calling for a ban on Trump over his controversial statements about Muslims has 571,257 signatures as of Thursday morning. British law says petitions with over 100,000 signatures must be considered for parliamentary debate.
Trump sparked a global uproar last month by proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. He has repeatedly defended his plan as necessary to prevent terrorism at home.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called Trump’s idea “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.”
Scotland’s Robert Gordon University also stripped the real estate tycoon of an honorary business administration degree given in 2010.