Just as the furor over the BBC‘s bungled Donald Trump edit had died down, the British broadcaster now finds itself in the crosshairs of another poll-topping conservative politician.
Nigel Farage, a loyal Trump supporter and leader of the UK’s Reform Party, responded furiously to a question from a BBC journalist during a press conference on Thursday.
His anger was stoked earlier in the day after BBC Radio 4 presenter Emma Barnett asked Richard Tice, Farage’s deputy, about “Nigel Farage’s relationship when he was younger with Hitler.”
Barnett was referring to an investigation in The Guardian newspaper, which alleged that Farage made antisemitic jokes about his classmates during his school years. He denies racial abuse.
“I thought this morning’s performance by one of your lower-grade presenters on the Today program was utterly disgraceful,” Farage told a BBC reporter at the press event.
“To frame a question around the leader of Reform’s relationship with Hitler, which is how she framed it, was despicable, disgusting beyond belief.”
Farage then proceeded to attack the BBC for its “double standards and hypocrisy,” demanding that the corporation apologize for shows it broadcast in the 1970s and 80s.
“At the time I was alleged to have made these [antisemitic] remarks, one of your most popular weekly shows was The Black and White Minstrel [Show]. The BBC were very happy to use blackface,” he raged. “I cannot put up with the double standards of the BBC.”
Pressed further by the BBC reporter, Farage said: “I’m done with you.” He added: “Until you apologize for all of your output, your appalling output at the same time that I’m accused of saying these things, which I deny, I’m not speaking to you.”
The BBC has been approached for comment.