Ministers tell Farage: respond to racism claim

Cabinet ministers have described detailed and multiple allegations of teenage racism by Nigel Farage as "repulsive" and repeated the prime minister's call for him to address the claims.

- Daniel Boffey Robert Booth

Liz Kendall, the secretary for science, innovation and technology, said she was appalled by the accounts reported by the Guardian.

The Welsh secretary, Jo Stevens, asked how far the Reform UK leader had changed his views. “People can form their own judgment on what kind of character he is,” Stevens said.

The Guardian has now heard testimony from about 20 individuals who claim they either witnessed, or were victims of, abusive behaviour by Farage at Dulwich college in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Aides to the Reform leader dismissed the allegations as being “entirely without foundation” and claimed they were “one person's word against another”.

The concern among a number of the school contemporaries who spoke to the Guardian is the blanket denial made by aides to Farage over the allegations. The wholesale rejection of the claims appears to be a change of tack by Farage, who had responded differently to the allegations of racism reported by Channel 4's Michael Crick in 2013.

Back then, Farage claimed that he may have said "some ridiculous things... not necessarily racist things ... it depends on how you define it". Farage is yet to comment in person on the claims, which include those made by Peter Ettedgui, 61, an award-winning director, who has said that Farage would sidle up to him and growl "Hitler was right" or "gas them".