US elections: Here are the British politicians who have backed Donald Trump

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With polls suggesting that British people overwhelmingly back Hillary Clinton, UK politicians have tended to lean the same way.

During the US primaries MPs even got together to debate whether to ban Donald Trump from Britain.

Some of Britain’s brave (or foolish) political souls have ventured to back the far-right Republican candidate, however.

The former Ukip leader campaign alongside Donald Trump in August. He took to the stage alongside the Republican candidate for a stump speech, telling the Mississippi audience he wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton “if you paid me”. He defended Mr Trump over sexism, saying the candidate was “not running to be Pope”.

The hard right Tory MP for Shipley said he would vote for Donald Trump “in a hearteat” and said he wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton because she kept “going on about the fact that she is a woman”. “It takes real guts to say unpopular and controversial things – and sometimes they really need to be said” Mr Davies wrote.

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC in September that he would “almost certainly” vote for Donald Trump in September. “I’d always vote for the Tory candidate in the United Kingdom and I’d probably be a Republican if I was an American,” he said. Following further controversy over Mr Trump Mr Rees-Mogg later said in October that he would abstain.

The Ukip-backing millionaire Arron Banks decided to go public with his defence of Mr Trump’s groping comments in October. “I think it’s obviously the case when men get together, men will say these things,” he said, adding that he did not condone the comments. “Men talk big. Men say all sorts of things,” he said.

Blonde-haired Tory MP Michael Fabricant said in May that he thought Donald Trump could be “a great president”. He added however that he did not necessarily agree with much of what Mr Trump had said. “I think as soon as he were to become president he would be very pragmatic, he would have different advisers around him,” he said.

Former David Cameron advisor has backed Donald Trump, arguing that Hillary Clinton represents “rich coastal elites”. “You don’t have to agree with everything Donald Trump says or does to conclude that he would make the most positive, practical difference in the real lives of real people,” Mr Hilton wrote in an article for Fox News.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said in June that he believed reports that Donald Trump was “a very decent man”. He said he would definitely not vote for Hillary Clinton – “that’s for sure”. His office has however in recent weeks clarified that he has not formally endorsed Mr Trump.