Keir Starmer has called on Nigel Farage to urgently address multiple and detailed allegations of racist behaviour during his teenage years, as the Reform leader attempted to dismiss the claims as “one person’s word against another”.
Pressure was put on Farage by the prime minister over what Downing Street said were “disturbing allegations” after the Guardian reported the testimony of more than a dozen school contemporaries, including an award-winning director who claimed to have been targeted with antisemitic abuse.
In the face of concerns raised by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and an extremism adviser to the last Conservative government, Farage’s spokesperson on Wednesday appeared to question whether it would be possible to remember events from the 1970s and early 1980s.
“If things like this happened a very, very long time ago, you can’t necessarily recollect what happened,” the spokesperson claimed.
Speaking in the Commons after a question from the Reform MP Lee Anderson at prime minister’s questions, Starmer said Farage needed to personally explain himself in the light of the Guardian’s reporting.
“Mr Speaker, he [Anderson] talks about dog whistle. Last week his leader said he didn’t have time to condemn the racist comments of his fellow MP for Runcorn,” the prime minister said, referencing Sarah Pochin’s complaint last month about TV adverts being “full of black people, full of Asian people”.
“He also said he didn’t have time to condemn his party calling children in care evil. He didn’t have time. I wonder if we could ask his leader next door to him whether he’s got time for his explanation for the stories in today’s papers.”
The prime minister’s spokesperson added: “These are disturbing allegations and it’s vital that Nigel Farage urgently explains himself. You’ve heard the prime minister speak just this week about Farage’s weakness in the face of divisive politics in Reform’s ranks.
“He’s still not condemned the language or taken action against one of his MP’s racist comments, refused to condemn them when asked last week. Reform is dragging our politics into a dark place. This Labour government stands for our patriotic British values of decency, tolerance and importantly, unity. So, it’s for Nigel Farage to explain.”
A spokesperson for Farage reiterated the Reform leader’s denial of him ever being racist and antisemitic at school. He questioned why some of those who had given testimony had not made the claims before.
“Our statement was very clear that these allegations date back 45 years. And I think that at any point in time, when Nigel was leader of Ukip, when he stood in the 2010 general election, the 2015 general election, during Brexit, maybe in the 2019 general election, you would have to ask yourself, why didn’t this come up before?”
Asked if Farage therefore believed those who made the allegations were inventing them, the spokesperson said: “I’m saying there is no primary evidence. It’s one person’s word against another.”
Asked if someone would be blocked from standing as a candidate if they had made similar comments, a spokesperson for Reform said they would if there was “some hard evidence”.
John Woodcock, an adviser on political extremism to the last Conservative government as a cross-bench peer, said testimonies reported by the Guardian appeared credible and the Reform leader’s response would be concerning to many.
Contemporaries accused Farage of targeting minority ethnic children for abuse during his time at Dulwich college, singing a “Gas ’em all” song that referred to the killing of Jewish, black and south-east Asian people, and burning a school roll in a year when there were said to be more Patels than Smiths.
When faced with claims from Channel 4 in 2013 about his conduct at school, Farage admitted saying “some ridiculous things … not necessarily racist things … it depends on how you define it”.
In response to the fresh allegations, a spokesperson for Reform, which is leading in the opinion polls, told the Guardian they were “entirely without foundation”.
Woodcock, ennobled as Lord Walney in 2020, suggested a prospective prime minister should not seek to brush off such claims. He said: “These detailed testimonies from Mr Farage’s contemporaries appear credible and describe a degree of extremism that cannot be summarily dismissed as irrelevant simply because it was alleged to have occurred when he was a teenager. Many people will readily accept that young people can espouse offensive or extreme views that should not define their character as an adult.
“They will be more concerned by the fact that Mr Farage is apparently now completely denying he ever said anything racist or antisemitic as a child, despite several public statements to the contrary from people who say they were on the receiving end of it from him.
“This suggests a man not at ease with his past – a troubling characteristic for someone who is seeking to govern the country.”
Among those who have accused of Farage of racist behaviour at Dulwich college was the Bafta- and Emmy-winning director Peter Ettedgui, 61, who claimed Farage would sidle up to him him and growl “Hitler was right” or “Gas them”.
In a new testimony, Jean-Pierre Lihou, a former friend of Farage’s at school, who said he once stayed over at his house, said he also recalled the abuse of Ettedgui.
“He used to say things like, you know, ‘Jude’, to Peter, which is the German for Jew, in the way it was said in the 1930s, a long ‘u’ in a menacing way, you know?”, Lihou said. “It’s pretty awful and he’s a bloody nice guy … Peter would become quiet, I think he originally said ‘sod off’ because he’s a fairly robust guy. But he eventually basically went into himself and tried to ignore it. It would subdue him.”
Not all of the school contemporaries who spoke to the Guardian recalled racist behaviour or felt that Farage was bigoted. But a number of those who did experience such behaviour said they had been motivated to speak out by Farage’s failure to show contrition about his past.
Georgina Laming, the director of campaigns at Hope Not Hate, said: “These revelations are sadly no surprise. Nigel Farage has consistently expressed anti-immigrant and intolerant views and shown voters who he really is.”
The allegations were described as “disturbing” by the chair of the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism.
The Labour MP Joani Reid said: “I am sure they have caused concern amongst Britain’s Jewish community, which is facing an unprecedented rise in antisemitism.
“I cannot comment on the veracity of these claims, only on how they make me feel. I think it essential that Mr Farage makes it clear he would not tolerate anyone in his party expressing such views at any time, and that these are not views he would ever express. Neither hatred of Jews nor any other racist opinion should be tolerated in Reform or any other party in parliament.”
Sunder Katwala, of the integration thinktank British Future, said while people who “would never trust” Reform UK would see the claims about Farage’s schooldays “as a gotcha”, others would regard the allegations as “from a different culture, that we now understand as toxic.”
But the allegations brought into “sharp focus” the “significant” question of Reform’s reputation on race and how far it can be trusted, Katwala said.
Simon Woolley, the founder of Operation Black Vote, said that people might ask whether Farage’s alleged “toxic early views never disappeared at all” and may have “merely shifted focus to other groups, including Muslims and black people”.
The Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, Max Wilkinson, said: “A lot of people say stupid and offensive things at school, but most grow out of it. Sadly, in Nigel Farage’s case he’s made a career out of it instead.”
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