Nigel Farage should issue an unreserved apology to former schoolmates who allege he subjected them to racist or antisemitic behaviour, the outgoing head of the UK’s equalities watchdog has said.
Kishwer Falkner, a crossbench peer who has completed a five-year term as chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Farage could apologise for the distress caused even if he disputes the intention behind the alleged remarks. She argued that acknowledging the hurt experienced by those who came forward would be the appropriate response.
A total of 28 contemporaries of Farage from his time at Dulwich College have told the Guardian they witnessed or experienced racist behaviour from him as a teenager. Among them is **Peter Ettedgui, 61**, who is Jewish and said Farage repeatedly told him “Hitler was right” or said “gas them” when they were at school. On Friday, **Yinka Bankole** alleged that a 17-year-old Farage once told him: “That’s the way back to Africa” when he was new to the school.
Farage and his spokespersons have denied the claims, insisting that accusers have misremembered events due to the passage of time or are motivated by political agendas. Farage maintains he never made malicious comments.
At a press conference on Thursday, he reacted angrily when questioned about the allegations, accusing broadcasters of hypocrisy by referencing BBC and ITV programmes from the 1970s and 1980s that contained racism and homophobia.
Speaking to Sky News about Farage’s response, Falkner said she felt “quite confused and disturbed”.
“You have a situation where, when you read these allegations in terms of what is attributed to him, it looks utterly ghastly on paper. And then you try and contextualise it, and you think, this is perhaps 50 years ago – you know, young people say all sorts of things at school.”
However, she added that she could not understand one aspect of his reaction: “The one thing that sadly confuses me about him, and I hear his contextualisation of it all: why can’t he just offer an unreserved apology for any distress?
“I just don’t get it. It seems to me that that would be the most genuine thing to say, if he is genuinely not a racist.”
Farage has said previously that he is willing to apologise if he caused offence and insisted that any offensive remarks he may have made were “never with malice”.
Speaking later on Sunday, Helen Whately, the Conservative work and pensions spokesperson, said Farage should be fully transparent.
“I think first and foremost that Nigel Farage should be straight with the public on this question. There are some very serious accusations about things that he has said and done about the question of racism. And he needs to give people a straight answer.”
