The British government had warned Wilders he was not welcome because he posed a threat to "community harmony and therefore public security."

But Wilders criticized the travel ban as an attempt to stifle freedom of speech and traveled to Britain on a point of principle.

The Dutch ambassador to Great Britain, Pieter Willem Waldeck, was due to meet the leader of the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) upon his arrival in London. Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen said the ambassador would be at the airport to assist the politician.

Wilders had been invited by a member of the House of Lords to show his short film Fitna. The British refusal to deny entry to a Dutch member of parliament has been condemned by parties from all sides of the Dutch political spectrum. Maxime Verhagen appealed to the British government to reconsider its decision.

Wilders received a letter on Tuesday from the British ambassador to the Netherlands telling him that he was not welcome because his visit would threaten “community harmony and therefore public security.”

Wilders said he would defy the British order by attempting to travel to Britain anyway. "I will go. I will get into the plane and fly to London Heathrow and I will see what will happen, if indeed the British government will arrest me or detain me or send me back or do whatever," Wilders told the BBC on Wednesday. "But I will not and I cannot accept that in the European Union that elected politicians who have not been sentenced for any crime, or anything else, that they are refused," he said.

Wilders, whose party PVV has 9 seats in the 150 Dutch parliament, faces prosecution by an Amsterdam court for inciting hatred and discrimination.

Malcolm Pearson, a member of Britain's upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords, who had invited Wilders, told the BBC he would show the film to legislators on Thursday "with or without Wilders".