Thirty-four school contemporaries of Nigel Farage have now come forward to claim they saw him behave in a racist or antisemitic manner, raising fresh questions over the Reform leader’s evolving denials.
One of those with new allegations is Jason Meredith, who was three years below Farage at Dulwich college, a private school in south-east London. He claims that Farage called him a “paki” and would use taunts such as “go back home”.
Meredith, 58, who is of Anglo-Indian heritage and has lived in Switzerland where he works as a product manager since 1999, said it was support for anti-racism that motivated him to come forward.
He told the Guardian: “What really irked me was the denial [by Farage] of being racist.”
“The word ‘paki’ was bandied by him – by Farage – there was kind of an entourage, if I remember right, hangers on,” Meredith said. “‘Go back home.’ The taunts is something I remember, the word ‘paki’, ‘go back home’ being used, certainly more than once. Simple taunts like ‘Jason is a paki’. I was 15, 16, something like that.”
Meredith is one of several contemporaries to have alleged to the Guardian they were victims of targeted abuse by Farage, who has come under sustained pressure from politicians belonging to various parties to “own up” and apologise. So far, Farage has refused to do so.
In a series of legal letters and subsequent interviews his position seemingly shifted from outright denial to claiming he only engaged in “banter” that was not malicious or directed with intent.
On Wednesday, when questioned by an ITV News journalist about the previous allegations, Farage went further than he has in his own previous denials, saying: “I don’t apologise for things that are complete made-up fantasies. Some of what I heard was just absolute nonsense by people with very obvious, if you looked, political motivation.”
Later on Wednesday, Farage told Times Radio that he acknowledged “aggressive banter”, but said claims that he had told one schoolmate to “go back to Africa” and made gas hissing noises at a Jewish pupil were “complete fantasy land”.
It is a characterisation rejected by those who say they witnessed or were victims of his alleged bullying at Dulwich college.
Most of the 34 have spoken to the Guardian on the record, with many saying they felt compelled to do so out of anger at the way Farage has handled the situation.
Last week, Farage told the Times that the allegations were “having zero effect” and “maybe solidifying our core support.”
Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, has said those who had made claims against Farage are liars and spreading “made up twaddle”.
Twenty-six school contemporaries signed an open letter calling on Farage to apologise for his alleged teenage racism, which they say was persistent and spanned his time at Dulwich from 13 to 18. He has not made any public statement in response to the letter, nor to a separate letter signed by 11 Holocaust survivors demanding he tell the truth and apologise for alleged antisemitic abuse.
Adrian Woods, 62, a translator, went to Dulwich for sixth form to sit his A-levels alongside Farage and Peter Ettedgui, an award-winning film director today. Ettedgui has claimed Farage would sidle up to him and say “Hitler was right” and “gas them”, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.
Woods said: “I was present when Nigel was harassing [Ettedgui] about being a Jew. I don’t remember the gas chamber stuff but it was pretty obnoxious. I remember saying ‘leave off’. If I saw him bullying the smaller ones I would say: ‘Leave off, Nigel, stop it.’
“Peter always wanted to be an actor. One day he launched the Shylock monologue – ‘if you prick us, do we not bleed?’ – he felt it, as a response to Nigel needling him.”
Woods added: “I remember where it was. In the new wing, on the top floor, and Nigel was standing to my left, as far as I recall, Peter nearer over the window. Peter launched into the monologue as a response to Nigel making antisemitic comments to him. This happened a few times, I witnessed this a few times. He had a lot of other people he would either rib or josh with, needle them, but some of them were more hurtful than others.”
Ettedgui, who is today a Bafta- and Emmy-winning director, said drama at school had offered him a sanctuary from the abuse.
“During my first year at Dulwich, the vicious antisemitic abuse Farage directed at me left me pretty much speechless,” he said. “I simply had no idea how to deal with it. But by the time we moved up into the next year, I’d discovered acting; participating in school drama was a safe haven away from Farage.
“It was astonishing to learn about Adrian Woods’ memory. I had totally forgotten this moment. But it is absolutely true that I was preparing the ‘Hath a Jew not eyes?’ speech for my audition at the National Youth Theatre.
“Merchant of Venice is often seen as an antisemitic play, but the words Shakespeare put in Shylock’s mouth spoke deeply to me. I’m not at all surprised that others remember me using them as a weapon with which I could refute Farage’s hate speech.”
Several contemporaries have spoken of Farage having an obsession with the 1980 school roll having more boys with the surname Patel than Smith. The Guardian has verified that the 1980 roll had 13 Patels and 12 Smiths. According to one, this led to him burning a copy of the roll.
Chris Kibble, 62, worked in finance. He also remembered Farage’s obsession with the surname Patel, a “diatribe that he used a lot”.
He said: “I absolutely remember him kind of, you know, obviously, he discovered that one day, or his group of little mates, and it was sort of like, you know, he was, yeah, just public broadcasting about it.”
Kibble also recalled Farage’s use of antisemitic language. “I was in some of those classes where, yeah, I do remember exactly that catchphrase of ‘gas em all’ coming out of [Farage’s] mouth.”
Another former pupil does not remember this happening to Ettedgui in particular, but recalled one incident of Farage: “I do remember him and I do remember that specific grotesque nastiness.”
He added: “The hissing – he did that to me. He would appear at one’s back and do ‘ssss’.”
James Varcoe, 61, said Farage would sing songs about gassing Jews, not necessarily targeted at individuals, but with no context. Varcoe said Farage “was known for it” and described him as an “equal opportunity racist, not just antisemitic”.
“All I recall is that he happily would use epithets about race, cheap epithets about race, but particularly the Jewish issue,” he said. “He used the P word, he used the N word, and happily would.”
Nick Cannon, who was in the same year as Farage, said that he wrote a letter to the school’s headteacher to protest against his elevation to the position of prefect.
If you have something to share about this story, you can contact Henry using one of the following methods.
Secure Messaging in the Guardian app
The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.
If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’.
To send a message to Henry Dyer please choose the ‘UK Investigations’ team.
Email (not secure)
If you don’t need a high level of security or confidentiality you can email henry.dyer@theguardian.com.
SecureDrop and other secure methods
If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.
Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.
“I remember being about 17, Nigel lived near me, we would get the same train back, but we weren’t mates,” he said. “At O-level, he suddenly became something from the 1930s. I used to see him walking around the playground and you would see young children crying.”
Cannon, 61, said that he recalled asking one young boy what had happened and being told that Farage had said “Hitler was right” to him. The alleged victim was not Ettedgui.
“I wrote a letter to the head to say: I don’t think he should be a prefect because this is what he is doing,” said Cannon. “Clearly, the head completely ignored me.”
Reform UK was contacted for comment.
