David Lammy has spoken of his own “traumatic” experience of being racially abused at school as he called on Nigel Farage to apologise for comments he allegedly made while a teenager.
Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, said the testimony of more than 20 of the Reform leader’s school contemporaries of his racist and antisemitic behaviour was “deeply troubling”.
Farage has faced repeated calls for a show of contrition after a Guardian investigation into his time at Dulwich college, in south-east London, but he is yet to apologise.
He has denied that anything he did as a young man was “directly” racist or antisemitic while conceding that “banter” then could be interpreted differently today.
Lammy, 53, whose parents, David and Rosalind, came to the UK from Guyana, contrasted Farage, 61, to those who abused him as a young man growing up in north London.
He said: “I was at school at the same time as Nigel Farage, late 70s, early 80s, and I’ve had a few former classmates contact me and apologise for some of the racial abuse that I suffered in that particular era. He should do the same.
“That kind of treatment in teenage years is actually quite traumatic, very isolating. Reading those stories is deeply, deeply troubling. He’s now the leader of a political party. He should do the right thing and apologise.”
The claims of Farage’s school peers suggest he indulged in racist behaviour throughout his time at secondary school, including by targeting specific minority ethnic children with slurs.
Among those who have given detailed testimony of their alleged experiences is Peter Ettedgui, an Emmy- and Bafta-winning director, who claimed that a 13-year-old Farage “would sidle up to me and growl ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.
Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was about nine years old he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage. “He walked up to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the pupil said. “That included me on three occasions, asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying ‘that’s the way back’ to wherever you replied you were from.”
Farage has claimed the almost two dozen former classmates who have told the Guardian of witnessing racist behaviour are politically motivated and not telling the truth. He has specifically denied Ettedgui’s claims.
Keir Starmer has described Farage as “spineless” and on Monday the attorney general, Richard Hermer, noted that the Reform leader had not condemned antisemitism in any of his comments since the allegations were made.
Hermer said: “Arguing that 20 people have somehow all misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible. Throughout his defensive responses to legitimate questions put to him, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism.”
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has spoken of his dismay at Farage’s “desperate” denials as he described how his experiences as a child had shaped his life. “Being called the P-word at that age doesn’t just hurt you, it changes you,” he said.
