{"id":298993,"date":"2025-12-04T18:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T18:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/298993\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T18:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T18:01:10","slug":"nigel-farage-denies-saying-anything-racist-with-malice-as-he-attacks-bbc-nigel-farage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/298993\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage denies saying anything racist \u2018with malice\u2019 as he attacks BBC | Nigel Farage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Farage has denied saying anything racist \u201cwith malice\u201d in his latest attempt to address allegations of abuse made by numerous of his contemporaries at school.<\/p>\n

The Reform leader declined to call his accusers liars, but lost his cool as he turned his fire on the BBC for questioning him about alleged antisemitic comments.<\/p>\n

He became increasingly angry as was asked by the BBC about his deputy leader, Richard Tice<\/a>, saying the testimony of his former classmates was \u201cmade-up twaddle\u201d and lies.<\/p>\n

Tice had earlier been questioned by the BBC\u2019s Emma Barnett<\/a>, who pressed the politician on Farage\u2019s \u201crelationship with Hitler\u201d, in relation to allegations from a Jewish former classmate that Farage had said to him: \u201cHitler was right,\u201d or \u201cGas them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Farage launched a tirade against the BBC and said he would no longer speak to the broadcaster, calling it \u201cdespicable\u201d and \u201cbeyond belief\u201d.<\/p>\n

Describing Barnett as one of the BBC\u2019s \u201clower-grade presenters\u201d, he criticised the way she asked the question, and then attacked the BBC for the fact it was showing programmes in the 1970s and 1980s that would be viewed as racist today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot put up with the double standards of the BBC about what I\u2019m alleged to have said 49 years ago, and what you were putting out on mainstream content. So I want an apology from the BBC for virtually everything you did throughout the 1970s and 80s,\u201d he said, referencing comedian Bernard Manning and the fictional character Alf Garnett, as well as The Black and White Minstrel Show.<\/p>\n

He went on to read out a letter he said he had received from a former schoolmate at Dulwich college, who said he never heard the Reform UK<\/a> leader racially abuse anyone.<\/p>\n

The letter said: \u201cI was a Jewish pupil at Dulwich college at the same time and I remember him very well. While there was plenty of macho tongue-in-cheek schoolboy banter, it was humour, and yes, sometimes it was offensive \u2026 but never with malice. I never heard him racially abuse anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he had, he would have been reported and punished. He wasn\u2019t. The news stories are without evidence, except for belatedly, politically dubious recollections from nearly half a century ago. Back in the 1970s the culture was very different \u2026 especially at Dulwich. Lots of boys said things they\u2019d regret today or just laugh at. Whilst Nigel stood out, he was neither aggressive nor a racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked repeatedly whether his accusers, such as the producer Peter Ettedgui, were liars and making things up, Farage declined to endorse Tice\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

When Farage was asked again by ITV about the allegations, he attacked the broadcaster for having featured the racist comedian Bernard Manning.<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether the allegations about racist comments were events that really happened, but his classmates experienced them in a different way, Farage said: \u201cRecollections may vary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, said: \u201cNigel Farage can\u2019t get his story straight. It really shouldn\u2019t be this difficult to say whether he racially abused people in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, he\u2019s claimed he can\u2019t remember, that it\u2019s not true, that he never \u201cdirectly\u201d abused anyone, that he was responsible for \u201coffensive banter\u201d, and deflected by saying other people were racist too.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of shamelessly demanding apologies from others, Nigel Farage should be apologising to the victims of his alleged appalling remarks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Conservatives said Farage had \u201cjust called a press conference and used it to rant at journalists over historic allegations of racism and antisemitism \u2013 allegations he has just admitted are true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage has denied saying anything racist \u201cwith malice\u201d in his latest attempt to address allegations of abuse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-298993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}