Prominent Conservative politicians have distanced themselves from Donald Trump after his performance in the US presidential debates, amid revelations that the Republican candidate had joked about molesting women.

Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith have previously said they would not vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, with Rees Mogg saying in mid-September that he would “almost certainly vote for Trump if I was American”.

However, on Monday Rees-Mogg said he now felt he could not vote for either candidate. “I obviously do not have a vote and believe it is important for the UK to be polite about all US presidential candidates as it is the most important foreign relationship for us,” he told the Guardian.

“However, I could not personally vote for either candidate so would have to abstain.”



Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, has also previously hinted at support for the Republican, telling LBC he “wouldn’t be voting for Clinton, that’s for sure”.

He had then quoted the US House of Representatives speaker, Paul Ryan, saying Trump was a “very decent man. He said he’d be better.” Duncan Smith’s office said on Monday that those comments should not be taken as an endorsement of Trump.

A raft of prominent Republicans, including 2008 presidential candidate John McCain, withdrew their support for Trump after Friday’s release of 2005 comments where Trump boasted of trying to “fuck” a married woman and said his fame meant he was able to “grab [women] by the pussy” .

Theresa May has repeatedly refused to be drawn on criticising Trump, unlike her predecessor David Cameron, who said Trump’s comments on banning Muslims from the US were “divisive, stupid and wrong”.

Asked about Trump’s comments on women, the prime minister’s deputy official spokesman said on Monday: “There is an election taking place in the US. There are two candidates. It is a matter for the US electorate what they do and not the British government.”

Defence secretary Michael Fallon said on Sunday he would not comment on either candidate. “We have to be very careful not to comment on other people’s elections, because we have to respect democracy and we have to work with whoever wins,” he said. “I’m not going to intervene in the US election.”

Education secretary Justine Greening voiced the strongest condemnation over the weekend, saying she felt Trump’s comments “were utterly crass”.

Ukip’s interim leader Nigel Farage is Trump’s most prominent British backer, though even the MEP has avoided categorically endorsing the Republican.

Speaking to the press after the presidential debate in St Louis, Farage likened Trump to “a silverback gorilla”. Asked if his appearance at the debate meant he was an immigrant doing a job that Americans wouldn’t, Farage said: “Could be.”

Other Ukip politicians have long distanced themselves from Trump, including the party’s sole MP, Douglas Carswell, who likened Trump’s performance to Farage’s last year in the Kent seat of South Thanet, where he failed to win election to the Commons.

Catching up on US politics. It all seems to be going a bit Thanet South for Donald Trump. #ShockAndAwful — Douglas Carswell MP (@DouglasCarswell) October 9, 2016

MEP Patrick O’Flynn also criticised the Republican contender, and was retweeted by the party’s former deputy chair Suzanne Evans and Welsh assembly member Mark Reckless.