Mitch McConnell backs Donald Trump and says he is ‘100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities’

Mitch McConnell has given Donald Trump his full support as he fights the result of the election, dismaying moderate Republicans with his embrace of the president’s defiant refusal to concede.

Mr McConnell said that Mr Trump was “100 per cent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities”.

He told the Senate on Monday: "Let's not have any lectures - no lectures - about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election."

His remarks came following a meeting with the attorney general, William Barr, who has been notably absent while Mr Trump and his allies protest against a “stolen” election.

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Mr McConnell, 78, was re-elected to represent Kentucky in the Senate on Tuesday.

Many had been waiting with eager anticipation to see whether he threw his weight behind the president’s desperate legal attempts to save his presidency.

Only four of the 53 sitting Republican senators – Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins– have publicly recognised Mr Biden as the projected winner of the election.

Mr McConnell stopped short of repeating the president’s claim that the election had been fraudulent and the White House “stolen” from him, but he did urge full investigations into accusations of voting irregularity.

He said no states have certified the results of the presidential election, while noting that Republicans won in Senate and House races they were expected to lose.

“All legal ballots must be counted, all illegal ballots should not be counted,” he said. “The process must be transparent.”