Nigel Farage has broken his silence nearly a week after he was accused by about 20 people of racism and antisemitism as a teenager, by saying he “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody”.
His remarks came after the publication of a detailed investigation by the Guardian in which many of his school contemporaries claimed to be victims of, or witnesses to, repeated incidents of deeply offensive behaviour.
The Reform party leader’s aides emphatically denied the allegations, saying that any “suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.
In a broadcast interview on Monday, Farage appeared to give a more nuanced response when he was asked if he had racially abused fellow pupils at school.
He replied: “No, this is 49 years ago by the way, 49 years ago. Have I ever tried to take it out on any individual on the basis of where they’re from? No.”
The interviewer accused him of caveating his answer, and asked again if he categorically denied the claims.
“I would never, ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way,” Farage responded. “It’s 49 years ago. It’s 49 years ago. I had just entered my teens. Can I remember everything that happened at school? No, I can’t. Have I ever been part of an extremist organisation or engaged in direct, unpleasant, personal abuse, genuine abuse, on that basis? No.”
Challenged again about whether he had racially abused anyone, Farage responded: “No, not with intent.”
When the interviewer told Farage that he did not understand what he meant by “not with intent”, the Reform leader responded: “You wouldn’t.”
Farage added: “No. I have never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody.”
Last Tuesday, contemporaries accused Farage, 61, of racist behaviour at Dulwich college, including the targeting of minority ethnic children for abuse, singing a “Gas ’em all” song that referred to the killing of Jewish, black and south Asian people, and burning a school roll in a year when there were said to be more Patels than Smiths.
The alleged behaviour spanned a number of years until Farage was 18.
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, when 13 and 14 years old, would sidle up to him and growl “Hitler was right” or “Gas them”.
Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was around 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 had not personally responded to the claims until his interview on Monday.
His spokesperson had previously said the claims were “without foundation”, and questioned why some of those who had given testimony had not made the claims before.
“If things like this happened a very, very long time ago, you can’t necessarily recollect what happened,” the spokesperson had said.
“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.”
Farage’s refusal to address the claims in public last week prompted Keir Starmer to call him “spineless”.
On a Today in Focus podcast last week, Ettedgui, whose credits as a director include Kinky Boots, McQueen and Super/Man: the Christopher Reeve Story, had spoken of his anger at the response from Reform.
He said: “The easiest thing for him to have said when these allegations first came up would have been: ‘Yes, I did say some extraordinarily upsetting things to people that were racist. And I unreservedly apologise to them for that. But I can assure them and the general public that this has nothing to do with my politics today.’ He’s never said that.
“I mean, there was a statement that went out from someone from Reform, a spokesperson from Reform. He says there’s no primary evidence, it’s one person’s word against another. If things like this happened a very, very long time ago, you can’t necessarily recollect what happened. I mean, that makes me really, really angry. Because of course you can, you know, of course I can.”
Mike Katz, Labour peer and former chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: “Farage seems to think that you can racially abuse people without it being hurtful and insulting. Let’s be crystal clear: you can’t.
“Farage refuses to discipline the racist views of his MPs and he won’t take action on the toxic culture within his party. He should finally come clean on claims over his past and apologise to those who bravely spoke out. Failure to do so would be yet more evidence that Farage is simply unfit for office.”
The Liberal Democrat president-elect, Josh Babarinde, said: “The Reform leader’s refusal to deny that he’s said these racist remarks is unbecoming from someone who wants to be our next prime minister.
“The British people deserve a straight answer. It looks like the mask has slipped and fact-of-the-matter Farage is turning into no-answers-Nigel.”
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