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Farage shits the bed when questioned on alleged racist comments

Nigel Farage has answered questions regarding his alleged past as a racist bully. And as you’ll see, he completely failed to convince anyone that the accusations weren’t true:

No one’s buying it

While you could say a person’s past is less important than their present, the problem is people think Farage is a racist right now. Accordingly, they hear about the things he allegedly said as a young man, and instead of thinking ‘he’s really grown since then‘, they think ‘he’s got better at hiding his true feelings‘.

On 22 November, the Guardian covered 20 individuals who have alleged the Reform leader has a “racist past”, with many of them describing antisemitism directed at one Peter Ettedgui. In Ettedgui’s own words:

[Farage] would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers […] I’d never experienced antisemitism growing up, so the first time that this vicious verbal abuse came out of Farage’s mouth was deeply shocking. But I wasn’t his only target. I’d hear him calling other students ‘Paki’ or ‘Wog’, and urging them to ‘go home’.

Many of his classmates have backed up what Ettedgui alleges, including Anthony Butler:

A contemporary and classmate of Farage, I clearly recall him relentlessly hectoring and bullying Ettedgui with shouts of “stupid yid” in the playground.

Andy Field said the following:

When I became a prefect, he [Farage] said: ‘I’ll show you how to do it.’ He took me for a walk up to the lower school playground, where all the children from about nine years old to 12 would be. And he singled out, completely at random, a kid of Asian extraction, and just put him in detention for no reason whatsoever. I was flabbergasted, absolutely stunned. I was just disgusted, really. No rhyme or reason, just purely based on the colour of his skin.

The Guardian also produced a timeline of the accusations against Farage which date back to 2013. The following is from 2019:

The letter writer, who later revealed himself as Jean-Pierre Lihou, wrote of vividly recalling Farage’s interest in his initials, NF, and the symbol of the National Front. He said he recalled Farage singing “Gas ’em all”, shouting “Send ’em home”, and talking about Oswald Mosley.

Farage himself avoided giving a direct answer when asked about the allegations, saying:

To say that this is going over old ground is an understatement. The period during which I was at Dulwich was highly politically charged with the rise of Thatcherism to the Brixton riots just down the road.

There were many people of that time who were attracted to extreme groups on both sides of the debate.

Almost like he’s got a racist present, as well as a racist past.

Slippery Farage

One section of Farage’s interview with ITV played out as follows:

ITV: At school, categorically on the record, you did not racially abuse fellow pupils?

Farage: I would never, ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way.

ITV: That’s not quite the same as not doing it.

Farage: It’s 49 years ago. It’s 49 years ago.

ITV: What difference does the time make?

Farage laughed at this question.

Farage: I’d just entered my teens. Can I remember everything that happened at school? No, I can’t. Have I ever been part of an extremist organisation, or engaged in direct, unpleasant personal abuse – genuine abuse – on that basis, no.

You’ll notice he isn’t saying he never engaged in racist abuse, but that he never did so while being part of a group like National Front.

ITV: You’re not quite… That’s very, very caveated. You’re not quite ruling this out. The question is, did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils in school?

Farage became very animated before responding

Farage: No, not with intent.

ITV: I don’t understand what you mean by ‘not with intent’.

Looking annoyed, Farage responded.

Farage: No, well you wouldn’t do.

Remember that Farage is literally a politician; i.e. it’s his job to explain things to people.

If someone doesn’t follow you, Nigel – and it seems that many people don’t – then that’s on you.

The interviewer continued to press the point:

ITV: But what does that mean?

Farage: No.

ITV: No what?

Farage: No. I have never directly… really tried to go and hurt anybody.

He ‘never really tried’; not he ‘never said it’.

If the allegations are true, this means Farage is very, very good at racism, because in his own words he wasn’t ‘really trying’. Just imagine how racist he could be if he put some effort in?

People had a lot to say, anyway:


The above wasn’t the only response that drew attention:

Like we said the other day, if Labour do seriously think Farage is a Russian agent, then why isn’t the government launching an investigation?

Problems

Of course, many of Farage’s supporters probably like the fact that he’s a racist. The problem he has is that he’s eyeing up a majority government, and “gas ’em all” isn’t a majority opinion.

With the Reform leader fence sitting on this topic, he could push some Reform supporters further right, others back to Labour and the Tories, and others yet to radical groups like the Greens and Your Party.

We’re still a long way out from the 2029 election, and Farage is starting to feel that.

Featured image via ITV

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.