Donald Trump thanks UK supporters for 'sticking up for him' after being called a foolish ‘wazzock’ during Parliament debate

'The people of the UK, they really stuck up for me and I want to thank them'

Donald Trump has previously referred to Mexicans as "rabid dogs" (Getty/Scott Olson)

Donald Trump has thanked his “supporters in the UK” for “sticking up for him” after British MPs branded him a “fool” and a “wazzock” in a debate over whether the US presidential contender should be banned from the UK.

Speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley, Mr Trump said of the debate: “I was sort of surprised it would happen; you know 500,000 votes today is a whole different thing than it would have been 10 years ago, before Twitter and all… But today they made a big deal out of it.

“I was really honoured by the way the people stuck up for me, because the people of the UK, they really stuck up for me and I want to thank them.”

Asked what he would say to his supporters in the UK, Mr Trump said: “I have a great deal of supporters in the United Kingdom, we receive thousands and thousands of letters and emails and tweets saying that you’re so right... and, as you know, the whole thing went nowhere.

Members of parliament gathered in a chamber at the Houses of Parliament in London on January 18 to debate whether to ban US presidential hopeful Donald Trump from entering the country AFP (AFP)

“I’m honoured by the tremendous support I have in the UK and that whole thing went away. Very few people even showed up to talk about it.”

Around 50 MPs debated Mr Trump’s right to visit the UK in Parliament after half a million people signed a petition calling for him to be excluded from the country on hate speech grounds over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US. Trump also claimed some areas of Britain are so radicalised police fear for their lives.

At points the sheer number of people signing the petition caused the Government’s website to crash.

During the debate, Conservative MP Victoria Atkins said: “If he met one or two of my constituents in one of the many excellent pubs in my constituency then they may well tell him he is a wazzock for dealing with this issue in this way.”

Labour's Jack Dromey said: "Donald Trump is a fool. He is free to be a fool. He is not free to be a dangerous fool on our shores."

Labour Party legislator Paul Flynn said Mr Trump had already received "far too much attention”, adding: "The great danger by attacking this one man is that we can fix on him a halo of victimhood."

The debate did not end in a vote and does not have any influence on Government policy.

Since the UK debate, Mr Trump has been endorsed as a presidential candidate by the politician-turned-reality star, Sarah Palin.

Ms Palin, a former Alaska governor who was Republican Senator John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election, appeared with Mr Trump at a rally in Ames, Iowa, describing him as an anti-establishment candidate who would "kick Isis' ass".