British Prime Minister Kier Starmer called on United Kingdom Reform Party leader Nigel Farage to apologize to former classmates after Farage was accused by multiple schoolmates and a former teacher of antisemitism and racism during a weekly session in the UK's House of Commons on Wednesday.
Such accusations included claims that Farage yelled “stupid yid” at Jewish classmates, called for the gassing of Jews, and used racial slurs towards non-white classmates. One anonymous former classmate described Farage as a “nasty little s**t and a racist.”
One former classmate recalled Farage singing a made-up song based on George Formby’s "Bless Them All." “I can remember it verbatim,” the report quoted the classmate as saying. “Gas 'em all, gas 'em all, into the chambers they crawl. We’ll gas all the paks, and we’ll gas all the yids, and we’ll gas all the c***s and all their f***ing kids.”
Farage denied the allegations during an interview on Monday, claiming that he “never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody” and could not remember everything that happened at school 49 years ago, The Guardian reported. When asked if his former classmates were telling the truth, Farage told the interviewer, “No, they are not telling the truth."
Farage's denials labeled 'fundamentally dishonest'
Peter Ettedgui, a former Jewish classmate of Farage’s, was reportedly one of the main targets of abuse. Ettedgui told the BBC that Farage had repeatedly told him "Hitler was right" and "gas them."
In an interview with the BBC, Ettedgui, now an award-winning film director, called Farage "fundamentally dishonest" for attempting to deny and minimize the accusations, sharing that he was “upset and angry” with Farage’s lack of accountability.
A former teacher told The Guardian that he had witnessed Farage saying “shut up, you Jew” to Ettedgui. Martin Rosell, now the chair of the Liberal Democrats in Salisbury, recalled Farage’s singing out of Ettedgui and asserted that Farage was “known for [his behavior] across school.”
Starmer called Farage’s denials “unconvincing to say the least,” clarifying that he has “no doubt that if a young Jewish student was hissed at to mimic the sound of a gas chamber, they would find it upsetting” and urging that Farage should “seek those people out and go and apologise to them.”