Nigel Farage Denies Being Racist At Top Private School: ‘That Was 49 Years Ago’

ByMF Jones

Nigel Farage has addressed claims from his former schoolmates that he was massively racist while attending Dulwich College as a teenager, but wasn’t entirely convincing when explaining himself under questioning from ITV News.

Schoolmates accused the Reform UK leader, 61, of bullying minority ethnic children, singing a song called “gas ’em all” about the killing of Jewish, black and south-east Asian people, and telling non-white pupils to ‘go back’ to where they came from.

Here’s how his interview panned out:

Asked about the claims, Farage said: ‘This is 49 years ago, by the way. Forty-nine years ago. Have I ever tried to take it out on any individual on the basis of where they’re from? No.’

Asked to rule out that he had engaged in racial abuse, he said: ‘I would never, ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way.’

‘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.’

When asked again if he engaged in racial abuse at school, Farage replied: ‘Not with intent.’

Asked to elaborate, he sad: ‘No, I have never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody.’

‘Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter in a playground, that you can interpret in the modern light of day in some sort of way? Yes.’

Asked then if this meant he had abused people, Mr Farage replied: ‘I’ve never directly racially abused anybody. No.’

So it sounds like he’s saying that anything he said at Dulwich College that could be construed as ‘racist’ was done so in a purely banterous fashion, in the way that kids that age might talk to each other at school, and was in no way malicious or bigoted in a way that anyone needs to worry about. Of course it would have been a lot easier (and maybe advisable) to just categorically deny everything, but there’s no way anyone was ever going to believe that a young Nigel Farage was never racially abusive, is there?

In any case, not a great look seeing him get so tetchy in the interview. Will it make a difference, though? Seems like anyone who’s already decided they will vote for Farage and Reform won’t particularly mind if he was a racist schoolboy back in the day. In fact they may have even held it against him if he apologised? Good thing he didn’t do that, then :/

For the recent clip in which Farage was accused of using ‘condescending language’ to female journalist Mishal Husein, click HERE.

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