Three more ex-pupils at school with Nigel Farage reject ‘banter’ claims | Nigel Farage

Three more contemporaries who claim to have witnessed Nigel Farage’s alleged racism as a teenager have dismissed the Reform UK leader’s suggestion that it was a “joke”, describing it as targeted, persistent and disgusting.

Former student Stefan Benarroch claimed that Farage and others were being ridiculed by people leaving a Jewish meeting at Dulwich College, while a second student, Cyrus Oshidar, described as “absurd” the Reform leader’s claim that he did not act with intent to harm.

“Isn’t it hurtful to be called a Paki?” Oshidar asked. A third, Rickard Berg, told the Guardian: “He is now in a position where he should not deny it. He is clearly lying.”

The Guardian spoke to more than 20 people who claimed Farage had engaged in racist or antisemitic behavior at school; These included seven people who said they remembered targeted harassment of Peter Ettedgui, now an Emmy and Bafta-winning director.

The alleged abuse lasted six years, from age 13 to 18.

On Monday night, Farage broke his silence over allegations that he targeted other students for racist and anti-Semitic abuse, nearly a week after the Guardian published an investigation into his alleged behaviour.

His aides have previously said they “categorically deny any suggestion that Mr Farage has engaged in, condoned or led racist or anti-Semitic behaviour”.

Farage changed his tune in the broadcast interview and appeared to admit that he had said things that could today be interpreted as biased. But he denied any “intent” to harm people because of their race or religion.

He said: “Have I said things on the playground 50 years ago that you could interpret as a joke, have I said things that you would interpret today from a modern perspective? Yes.”

He later admitted that he “probably” “misspoke in my younger days” and hoped he hadn’t said anything that could be interpreted as racist, but more than forty years later his memory was flawed.

He denied directly abusing anyone, describing it as “taking it out on a person based on who they are or what they are.”

He claimed that those who spoke were politically motivated and “weren’t telling the truth.”

In another statement made on Tuesday, after the Guardian made new allegations against him, Farage appeared to change his stance again. “I can say categorically that I did not say the things that were published in the Guardian when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago,” he said.

He claimed the Guardian wanted to “denigrate anyone who speaks out about the issue of immigration”.

Writing for the Guardian, Ettedgui, who claimed Farage would tell him as a 13-year-old classmate “Hitler was right” or “give them gas”, claimed: “Well, he took direct aim at me and I can tell it hurt. How did he think that would make me feel? How does he think those who are called Pakistanis or told to ‘go home’ feel?”

Benarroch, who is Jewish and was two years younger than Farage at school, said he was not personally targeted by him but remembered the alleged abuse of Ettedgui.

“He was such a gentle soul and Farage made his Farage life a nightmare,” he said.

“They were only able to identify us because we had to go to the stupid Jewish ward at the science labs school. So none of us were remotely religious. They’d hang out there. Farage would hang out with his minions. Then they’d make fun of us as we left.”

Regarding the claim that those who speak out are not telling the truth, Farage believes that “this is the oldest of antisemitic tropes”.

He said he thought it was like “claiming that there is a global Jewish conspiracy around the world and that you have to lie to have a conspiracy. That’s what Reform accuses us of. It doesn’t get more personal than that.”

Berg, He, who was in the same year as Farage during O-levels, said it was also a reminder that the abuse towards Ettedgui was direct and designed to hurt.

He said: “He definitely attacked Peter and there were a few other people he could have attacked as well. I’m a foreigner, because I’m Swedish, he emphasized that I was a foreigner in a way, but he didn’t attack me, because I initially stood up to him. The other guys didn’t do it. Peter Ettedgui didn’t react to him at all. Farage was a bully, typical, attacking the soft guys who wouldn’t stand up, who wouldn’t take the bait. That’s the way it worked. It worked.”

“He was a disgusting person, there was no doubt about that. [The song] Fuel them all, I heard you singing this song to Ettedgui. I couldn’t understand then because Peter didn’t react. You used to think it was his job to react.”

Oshidar, who was in the same year as Farage, said he remembered the constant name-calling, which included anti-Semitic and racist slurs. He claimed that “every day the same kind of sound came out of him”, adding that he realized it was “the language of the time”.

He claimed: “He wasn’t the only one who said it. But he was the only one in Dulwich who said it regularly.”

In response to Farage’s denial that he had directly harassed anyone, he claimed: “No, that’s nonsense. I mean, that’s absolute nonsense. There’s no doubt that it’s happening… He’ll try to deny it because of who he is and where he is at the moment. But he can’t. So it’s undeniable.”