Reform UK Farage should apologise over alleged racist comments, says Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch questioned yesterday why Nigel Farage had not apologised for alleged racist and antisemitic comments while at school.

- Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor

In her strongest comments yet on the issue, the Conservative leader said the weight of the evidence of more than 20 former schoolmates was significant.

She said she was surprised that the Reform UK leader had not admitted any fault or apologised, saying this would have been her first instinct as a politician.

Twenty-eight of Farage’s Dulwich college contemporaries have told the Guardian they experienced or saw alleged racist or antisemitic behaviour by him when he was a teenager. They included Peter Ettedgui, 61, who is Jewish and said Farage had repeatedly told him “Hitler was right” and “gas them”.

Yinka Bankole said last week that he was new to the private school in south London when a 17-year-old Farage had told him “that’s the way back to Africa”.