Farage abused pupils, claims former teacher

It was 1981 and Nigel Farage was turning 17.

- Exclusive Daniel Boffey Chief reporter

He was already a figure of some controversy, as would become a lifelong habit, among the younger pupils and staff at Dulwich college in southeast London."I remember it was either in a particular English lesson or form period that his name came up," said Chloë Deakin, then a young English teacher, of a discussion with a class of pupils aged 11 or 12.

"There was something about bullying, and he was being referred to, quite specifically, as a bully.

And I thought: ‘Who is this boy?’Deakin conferred with colleagues in the staff room who corroborated accounts of harassment of fellow pupils and of Farage’s apparent fascination with the far right, including claims that he had been “goosestepping” on combined cadet force marches.

“But initially I had heard it from boys,” she said. “Iwas shocked to hear that this Dulwich boy was apparently getting away with this kind of behaviour, at cadet camp etc, and thought: ‘This is seriously out of order. It’s horrible?”

Despite the chatter in the playground and staffroom, Farage was put ona draft list of prefects by the headteacher, David Emms, and his deputy, Terry Walsh. There was ameeting where strong views were aired, though Emms and Walsh were of the opinion that Farage was naughty, rather than being a malevolent racist.

“So when I heard that Farage’s name was on the finalised prefect list, Iwas appalled and that was why I wrote independently to Emms, because | felt strongly about it -Istill do” Deakin recalled.

Deakin’s letter of June 1981, first revealed by the Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick ina report in 2013, is uncompromising. She has never spoken before of this episode with the letter - written after Farage’s 17th birthday - emerging only as a result of her having given a copy ofit toa senior teacher at the time, as was the practice at the school.