Green MP Caroline Lucas has joined the campaign to force US tycoon Donald Trump to change his plans to build a luxury golf course on the Aberdeenshire coast.

The MP has bought a stake in a one-acre stretch of land at the heart of the resort site, owned by opponents of the £750 million project. They claim the multi-owned land at the heart of the site, which includes protected sand dunes, could block the project in its current form.

As well as a championship golf course, the luxury development on the Menie estate includes a 450-bedroom hotel, 950 holiday apartments and 500 residential homes.

Trump has claimed the residents refusing to sell would not affect the construction of the golf course, which is already under way and should be finished in 18 months, or any of the homes.

Work on the course got under way last month, after the tycoon won planning permission to start work on his "world's greatest golf course" in June, four years after he first put his plans forward.

Lucas became a joint owner of the plot, nicknamed the "bunker", along with Body Shop co-founder Gordon Roddick.

The campaign is being co-ordinated by action group Tripping up Trump, who want to stop Aberdeenshire Council from serving compulsory purchase orders on families and other people who own land on parts of the site.

The council has so far refused to rule out using such orders to allow the Trump development to take place.

Lucas, the Brighton Pavillion MP said: "When confronted by a developer like Trump who thinks it is okay to trample over anything and anyone that gets in his way, it is important to fight back.

"So I am joining with others to very deliberately get in the way of what amounts to an incredibly damaging vanity project.

"By standing alongside the people of Aberdeenshire who rightly refuse to have their rights and their environment pushed aside, I hope to send a very clear message to Donald Trump – this community is not giving in."