'Questions to answer' Farage's response to allegations is cowardly, says Starmer

Nigel Farage has been accused of being “spineless” by the prime minister and a “coward” by Dulwich college contemporaries over his response to allegations of racism.

- Daniel Boffey Kiran Stacey Johannesburg Mark Blacklock

Keir Starmer said the Reform UK leader had “questions to answer” about alleged comments and chants as a teenager that include songs about the Holocaust and accusations of bullying towards minority ethnic schoolboys.

He added that Farage had a “track record” when it came to racism, pointing to his failure to discipline his fellow Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts.

Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Starmer said: “He needs to explain the comments, or alleged comments that were made, and he needs to do that as soon as possible. He hasn’t got a good track record in relation to this because Sarah Pochin, his MP, made some clearly racist comments and Nigel Farage has done absolutely nothing about it.

He added: “So far he’s said absolutely nothing about it. He’s got plenty to say on lots of things, apart from showing some leadership when it comes to racism.”

Contemporaries have accused Farage of a series of racist acts during his time at Dulwich college, including allegedly singing a “gas ‘em all” song that referred to the killing of Jewish, black and southeast Asian people, and burning a school roll in a year when there were said to be more Patels than Smiths.