Reform deputy leader dismisses claims of Farage’s past racism as new witnesses come forward | Reform UK

The deputy leader of Reform UK has called a famous film director and a growing group of corroborating witnesses liars over claims by Nigel Farage about youth antisemitism and racism.

As the bigotry debate continues to dogged Reform, whose lead in national polls has eroded in recent weeks, Richard Tice has turned to those who claim to have been harassed and those who say they have seen it.

In a blunt intervention, Tice described the testimony of nearly two dozen people who spoke to the Guardian about Farage’s racism at Dulwich College as “contrived chatter”.

Among those making the allegations is Bafta and Emmy-winning Jewish director Peter Ettedgui, who said a young Farage approached him and told him “Hitler was right” and “gassed them gas”, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

The Guardian spoke to eight school contemporaries who confirmed Ettedgui’s account. They are among nearly two dozen witnesses who describe Farage’s racist and anti-Semitic remarks when they were between the ages of 13 and 18.

Following the Guardian’s investigation, Farage admitted he may have said things at school that would be viewed differently today as a “joke” but denied saying anything “directly” racist or antisemitic to a person.

Asked by Emma Barnett on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today program whether telling a Jew that “Hitler was right” was direct racist abuse, Tice replied: “Yes I do… I can’t believe anyone would say that” and described it as “made-up nonsense from people who don’t want Nigel to be prime minister of the country”.

Asked directly whether he believed Ettedgui was lying, Tice said: “Yes.”

“I think this is bullshit made up by a bunch of people,” he added. “These people have a political ax to grind and you know what, voters are going to by-elections every week and voting for Reform because they don’t buy this anti-Nigel left-wing narrative.”

Tice said Farage’s statement was “mentioned to the BBC last week” and questioned why the interviewer “brought it up again when talking about the county council elections”.

He added that it was “funny” that Farage’s classmates “didn’t remember this three years ago, six years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago”.

When it was pointed out that Ettedgui had shared some of his memories of Farage’s remarks to Michael Crick in 2013, he doubled down and claimed it was “nonsense made up by someone with a politically biased motivation”.

He emphasized that “no one opposes antisemitism more than Nigel and I” and stated that they oppose pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

More people have come forward since the Guardian published its first story.

YouGov led Reform in polls in mid-September with 29 per cent, but this fell to 25 per cent in a poll published on 1 December.

In legal letters before the Guardian investigation was published two weeks ago, Farage’s lawyers claimed they “categorically deny any suggestion that Mr Farage engaged in, condoned or led racist or antisemitic behaviour”.

Last week Farage apparently changed his position in an interview with the BBC, saying: “It was 49 years ago. It was 49 years ago. I had just gone through puberty. Can I remember everything that happened at school? No, I can’t. Have I ever been part of an extremist organisation, or been involved in direct, nasty, personal abuse, actual abuse on that basis? No.”

He said he “never directly, truly went out and tried to hurt anyone.”

Farage later issued a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that were published in the Guardian when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”

Ettedgui wrote in the Guardian that Farage’s denials were an example of “further dishonesty”. “As a victim of his verbal abuse, I can assure you I remember it all vividly,” he said. “The cruelty of Farage’s words exceeded typical schoolboy banter, even in the 1970s.”

Responding to Tice’s comments, Labor leader Anna Turley said Farage and Tice should “apologize urgently” rather than “changing their stories over and over”.

“It has taken serious courage for the victims of Nigel Farage’s alleged racism to come forward and tell their stories. It is utterly deplorable that Richard Tice has denied this and suggested they are lying, despite Farage himself refusing to categorically deny it and saying he cannot remember everything that happened at school.”