Washington, Oct 18 (IANS): Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is leading Republican rival Donald Trump by 12 percentage points, according to a new national poll, up 8 points from a similar survey conducted last month.

The Monmouth University poll released on Monday put Clinton ahead of Trump, 50 per cent to 38 per cent, Politico news magazine reported.

The former Secretary of State's lead was up significantly from the 4-point advantage she held in September's Monmouth poll.

This latest poll is the first to be conducted entirely since the accusations of sexual assault against Trump began to emerge.

Sixty-two per cent of voters said they believed the allegations against Trump were credible while 58 per cent said they were not surprised by what they heard the real-estate mogul said on the recording.

Clinton's favourability rating remained poor but steady relative to the previous poll, with just 38 per cent of voters holding a favourable opinion of her and 52 per cent holding an unfavourable opinion.

The number of respondents with a favourable opinion of Trump dipped 6 points, from 32 per cent to 26 per cent, while his unfavourable numbers climbed 4 points, from 57 per cent to 61 per cent.

The Monmouth University poll was conducted from October 14-16, reaching 805 registered voters nationwide via telephone with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 per cent.

Of the 805 registered voters reached, 726 were determined to be likely to vote in the November 6 election, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.6 per cent.