Nigel Farage is “fundamentally dishonest” for saying former pupils who claim he made racist comments to them are not telling the truth, one of his ex-classmates has said.
Over recent days, the Reform UK leader has found himself at the centre of controversy after several people who attended school with him at Dulwich College claimed he made racist and anti-semitic remarks when he was a teenager.
This included an accusation from BAFTA and Emmy award-winning director Peter Ettedgui, who alleged Farage had said “Hitler was right” and “Gas them”, and claimed he made a prolonged hissing sound to imitate gas showers.
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In an interview with ITV News on Monday, Farage defended himself against the claims, saying they were from 49 years ago and he would never racially abuse people in a “hurtful or insulting way” in a combative ITV interview.
This was followed by the Clacton MP issuing a stronger denial, saying he “categorically did not say the things that have been published in the Guardian aged 13.”
Now, Ettedgui has said he is “really angry” at Farage’s suggestion that he and other former pupils were not being truthful.
Speaking to the BBC, Farage had said he had probably “misspoken in my life, in my younger days, when I was a child”.
But he insisted he had not “directly racially abused” anyone “by taking it out on an individual on the basis of who they are or what they are”.
In response, Ettedgui told the BBC: “This is a man who has power, influence, has had a massive impact on the direction of this country, for which, you know, hats off to him.
“And he is being fundamentally dishonest in everything that he says there. So I feel upset and angry about that.”
At the same time, three more ex-pupils who attended school with Farage have rejected his suggestion that any comments he made were just “banter.”
One man, Cyrus Oshidar, told the Guardian that Farage’s claim he didn’t act with intent to hurt was “rubbish.”
Speaking to GB News, Farage has once again denied the claims from the ex-pupils.
He told the channel: “I categorically deny saying those things, to that one individual, and frankly, frankly for the Guardian and the BBC to be going back just shy of half a century to come out with this stuff it shows how desperate they are.”