Two Ukip MEPs have publicly condemned Nigel Farage for appearing to play down Donald Trump’s comments about groping women, with one saying the interim party leader was trying to “defend the indefensible”.
Senior Ukip figures have privately expressed concern at Farage’s recent comments supporting Trump, which have seen him address a rally for the Republican candidate and talk him up in the spin room after the latest presidential debate.
However, the MEPs are the first to publicly criticise Farage for dismissing Trump’s comments as “alpha male boasting”.
Jane Collins, who represents Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, said she had previously been a strong supporter of Farage, but “to make this kind of criminal behaviour seem normative makes me seriously question his judgment”.
She said: “Trump’s sexist and derogatory comments have unequivocally proven he is totally unfit to be president of the United States, and Nigel Farage should think very carefully about defending him.”
In a separate statement, William Dartmouth, Ukip MEP for the south-west of England, said he wished to “strongly disassociate myself” from Farage’s seeming defence of Trump’s remarks, adding that many of his fellow MEPs shared his view.
“I am a supporter, even, on occasion, an admirer of Nigel. But this goes too far,” Dartmouth said. “What message does it send to us in the UK for Nigel to be an apologist for Mr Trump?
“This is not usual locker room chat, nor indeed is Mr Trump’s view shared by very many men,” he said. “Nigel is the present leader of Ukip and when he speaks, it will be supposed he speaks for the party. On this matter he does not, should not and cannot.”
One leading Ukip figure, speaking anonymously, told the Guardian that party members had been “genuinely appalled” at the apparent defence of Trump’s comments.
They said: “And he’s contradicting himself – saying that what Donald Trump said about groping women was just alpha male banter, and yet with the incidents with migrants in Cologne on New Year’s Eve he very rightly condemned it.
“It’s total hypocrisy to say it’s OK if a rich, white man who’s running for president does it.”
The 11-year-old recording of Trump’s remarks, released over the weekend, has led many leading Republicans drop their support for him. In the recording Trump discusses with the TV host Billy Bush a failed attempt to sleep with a married woman, before talking more generally about women.
“I am automatically attracted to beautiful women,” Trump said. “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss, I don’t even wait … and when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
He added: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Speaking in Missouri before Sunday’s presidential debate, Farage said of the comments: “Look, this is alpha male boasting. It’s the kind of thing, if we are being honest, that men do. They sit around and have a drink and they talk like this.
“By the way, quite a lot of women say things amongst themselves that they would not want to see on Fox News or the front page of a newspaper. I’m not pretending it’s good – it’s ugly, it is ugly.”
Collins said Trump’s remarks were “not normal, nor are they acceptable”. She added: “There is never an excuse for sexual assault and way too many women already suffer in silence from fear of having to face these entrenched attitudes that this type of behaviour is OK.”
Farage, who resumed the Ukip leadership temporarily after his replacement, Diane James, resigned after 18 days in the role, remains credited by most senior party figures as having been central to its success.
But several have said privately that they fear his love of the spotlight and his association with Trump are now damaging the party.
