Although the British Foreign Office stressed that it had not advised the team to drop out, Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said he supported the decision.

'You have to support them, because the players' security has to come first,' Sutcliffe said.

But the minister added that he would be speaking to the Indian authorities about the issue and Britain would do all it could to support India ahead of the Commonwealth Games next year.

However, Anne Smillie, chief executive of Badminton Scotland, criticised her fellow-British official, saying: I think perhaps they have over-reacted. Certainly our Scottish players and our team manager, who are in Hyderabad, feel confident that security is at its best.'

Scotland has two players in the tournament and Wales has three.

But Badminton England Chief Executive Adrian Christy insisted the team had received warning of a threat 'not just generally to the tournament but to specific top stars.'

'Considering the level of concern that we had, security was very poor. After the players had experienced that, they felt they couldn't put themselves back in the performance mindset. I would suspect, on the back of our decision, security has been strengthened, but that wasn't there when we needed it.'