Nigel Farage has addressed long-standing allegations of racism and antisemitism during his teenage years at Dulwich College, nearly a week after a detailed Guardian investigation brought the claims from about 20 school contemporaries to light. In a broadcast interview, Farage offered a nuanced response, stating he “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody” and denying he ever targeted individuals based on their origin with intent to hurt. He characterized the events as occurring 49 years ago, when he was just entering his teens, and claimed he could not remember everything that happened at school.

The allegations by his former schoolmates describe repeated incidents of deeply offensive behaviour. Specific claims include Farage, at 13-14 years old, telling a minority ethnic pupil, Peter Ettedgui, “Hitler was right” or “Gas them.” Other accusations detail singing a “Gas ’em all” song, which allegedly referred to the killing of Jewish, Black, and South-East Asian people, and burning a school roll in a year where there were said to be more Patels than Smiths. Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that a 17-year-old Farage would ask where he was from and point away, saying: “That’s the way back.”

Farage’s responses to these accusations have evolved over time. In 2013, questioned by Michael Crick, Farage admitted to saying “some ridiculous things that upset them,” but denied they were necessarily racist. In 2019, responding to an anonymous letter (later revealed to be from Jean-Pierre Lihou) detailing chants like “Gas ’em all” and discussions about Oswald Mosley, Farage avoided direct denials, attributing the period to a “highly politically charged” environment and denying support for Mosley. By 2021, for Crick’s biography, Farage acknowledged “winding up” “hard left class-of-1968 masters” and described schoolboy terms of abuse as “limitless” with “no boundaries.”

More recently, prior to Farage’s direct interview, his representatives from Reform UK issued emphatic denials. In October 2025, a barrister for Reform UK, Adam Richardson, described the allegations as “wholly untrue” and “categorically denied” any suggestion of Farage engaging in, condoning, or leading racist or antisemitic behaviour. He later threatened legal proceedings for injunctions, retractions, and damages if the Guardian published allegations. In November 2025, a spokesperson for Reform UK called the allegations “entirely without foundation,” citing a lack of contemporaneous records and suggesting they were a political smear to discredit the party. The spokesperson also argued that such claims should have emerged earlier, during Farage’s previous political campaigns, and concluded it was “one person’s word against another.”

Farage’s shifting and nuanced responses have drawn criticism. Keir Starmer called him “spineless” for his initial refusal to publicly address the claims. Peter Ettedgui expressed anger at Reform’s denials, stating he wished Farage had simply apologized for “extraordinarily upsetting things that were racist” and separated his past from his current politics. Mike Katz, Labour peer, condemned Farage’s apparent belief that one could racially abuse without being hurtful, asserting: “Let’s be crystal clear: you can’t.” Liberal Democrat president-elect Josh Babarinde criticized Farage’s lack of a straight answer, suggesting “the mask has slipped.”