In the stormy world of British politics, few figures have generated as much controversy—or as many headlines—as Nigel Farage. Now, as the leader of Reform UK and a frontrunner in the polls, Farage faces a new wave of allegations that threaten to overshadow his political ambitions. At the center of the storm are claims from former classmates at Dulwich College, a prestigious private school in south London, who allege that Farage engaged in racist and antisemitic abuse during his teenage years in the 1970s and 1980s. The allegations, first detailed by The Guardian on November 18, 2025, have since been corroborated by several former pupils and reignited a national debate on accountability, memory, and the boundaries of youthful indiscretion.
Peter Ettedgui, a Bafta and Emmy award-winning director who attended Dulwich College alongside Farage, has been the most vocal accuser. Speaking to the BBC on November 25, Ettedgui described Farage’s denials as "fundamentally dishonest." He recalled, "One of the most vivid memories of my school life is Farage repeatedly coming up to me and, knowing that I was Jewish, saying Hitler was right and 'gas 'em', and that was frequently followed by a 'sssss', you know, kind of imitating the sound of escaping gas." Ettedgui emphasized that this abuse was not isolated but occurred "quite consistently over the year that we were together in the same class." The impact, he said, was deeply personal, especially considering his family’s history as Holocaust survivors.
Ettedgui’s account has not stood alone. According to The Guardian, more than a dozen former Dulwich College pupils have come forward, claiming to have witnessed or experienced similar incidents. Some allege that Farage used offensive racial slurs, including the P-word and W-word, directed at students from ethnic minority backgrounds. Former teacher Bob Jope told The Guardian that he remembered telling Farage, "right – out!" after hearing him say, "Shut up you Jew" to Ettedgui. Another classmate, Tim France, said Farage would "often be doing Nazi salutes and saying 'Sieg heil'," adding, "You can't really defend it as being a joke, or that he was too young to know any better. We were 18." Two other former pupils, Jean-Pierre Lihou and Martin Rosell, corroborated Ettedgui’s version of events to the BBC, with Lihou recalling, "I remember him specifically talking about 'do go home, Hitler was right', singing 'Gas Them All' and all of these absolutely antisemitic comments directed straight at Peter."
Despite this chorus of voices, Farage has categorically denied the allegations. In a statement to GB News, he declared, "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." In an earlier interview with ITV News on November 25, Farage insisted, "I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published in the Guardian aged 13, nearly 50 years ago." He has repeatedly emphasized that he never abused classmates "in a hurtful or insulting way" or "with intent," and that any remarks made as a child could be interpreted as playground banter rather than genuine malice. "Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter in a playground? You could interpret in the modern light of day in some sort of way, yes," Farage conceded, adding that he would apologize to anyone "if they were genuinely hurt."
Farage’s responses have drawn sharp criticism from across the political spectrum. Labour peer Mike Katz told Yahoo News, "He is trying to say abhorrent racist comments, including vile antisemitic insults, doesn’t matter. He seems to think that you can racially abuse people without it being hurtful and insulting. Let’s be crystal clear: you can’t." Liberal Democrat president-elect Josh Babarinde added, "Farage's refusal to deny that he’s said these racist remarks is unbecoming from someone who wants to be our next prime minister. The British people deserve a straight answer." The government's independent adviser on antisemitism, Labour peer Lord John Mann, was equally forthright: "Nigel Farage's appalling attempt to shrug off serious allegations of antisemitism and other appalling forms of racism as playground banter is as insulting as it is unbelievable. Farage needs to do the decent thing and come clean with the British public about the full extent of his past behaviour and apologise to those who have bravely come forward to share their deeply upsetting and disturbing experiences."
Yet, not everyone is convinced by the allegations. Some former Dulwich College pupils have disputed the claims, with Patrick Neylan telling the BBC, "I never saw Farage being openly racist, antisemitic towards any individual… I'd be disappointed because I never thought of him as an overt racist." Former Tory MP and current Reform UK spokesperson Anne Widdecombe dismissed the controversy, arguing on the Jeremy Vine show that "horrible humour" is common among teenage boys and that it is "a nonsense" to judge adults by everything they said as teenagers decades ago. Farage himself has suggested that the timing of the allegations is politically motivated, noting, "Several books and thousands of stories have been written about me, but it is only now that my party is leading in the polls that these allegations come out. I will leave the public to draw their own conclusions about why that might be."
The allegations have also revived earlier controversies. Claims about Farage making racist comments at school first surfaced in 2013, when Channel 4 unearthed a letter from a former teacher alleging that Farage shouted Hitler Youth songs as a schoolboy. Farage dismissed those accusations at the time, saying, "Of course I said some ridiculous things, not necessarily racist things. It depends how you define it." He has maintained that he has done more "to defeat extremism and far-right politics than anybody else in the UK, from my time fighting the BNP right up to today."
This latest controversy comes at a pivotal moment for Reform UK, which is currently leading in the polls, with bookmakers tipping Farage as the favourite to become the next prime minister. The party has faced persistent accusations of racism, with an October 2025 YouGov poll finding that more than four in ten Britons consider Reform UK, its policies, and its voters to be "generally racist." Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy have both commented on the issue, with Lammy acknowledging that Farage has denied the allegations and stating, "I accept that he has denied it."
For Peter Ettedgui and others who have spoken out, the stakes are personal as well as political. Ettedgui told The Guardian, "The easiest thing for him to have said when these allegations first came up would have been: 'Yes, I did say some extraordinarily upsetting things to people that were racist. And I unreservedly apologise to them for that. But I can assure them and the general public that this has nothing to do with my politics today.' He's never said that." As the debate rages on, the question of whether past actions—however distant—should define a political leader remains fiercely contested. But for those who remember, the memories are anything but distant.
