Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to throw open his country’s gates for migrants and refugees after the European Parliament voted to suspend EU membership negotiations with Ankara.

“If you go any further, these border gates will be opened. Neither me nor my people will be affected by these empty threats,” Mr Erdogan said at a women’s justice congress in Istanbul on Friday, raising the rhetorical stakes with the EU.

“It wouldn’t matter if all of you approved the vote,” he added, defiantly, referring to the European Parliament’s motion a day earlier.