Nigel Farage should apologise after racism allegations, says former watchdog head

"Nigel Farage should offer an unreserved apology to people who allege he targeted them with racist or antisemitic behaviour while at school, the outgoing head of the government's equalities watchdog has said. Kishwer Falkner, a crossbench peer who has just completed five years as chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said that even if the Reform UK leader rejected the allegation that he had been deliberately racist, he could nonetheless apologise to people who said they had been deeply hurt by his actions."

"You have a situation where, when you read these allegations in terms of what is attributed to him, it looks utterly ghastly on paper. And then you try and contextualise it, and you think, this is perhaps 50 years ago you know, young people say all sorts of things at school. There was, however, she said, an element that she did not understand: The one thing that sadly confuses me about him, and I hear his contextualisation of it all: w"

"A total of 28 contemporaries of Farage at Dulwich college have told the Guardian they experienced or witnessed such behaviour when he was a teenager. These include Peter Ettedgui, 61, who is Jewish, and said Farage repeatedly told him Hitler was right or said gas them at him when they were at school. On Friday, Yinka Bankole said a then 17-year-old Farage told him: That's the way back to Africa when he was much younger and new to the school."

Kishwer Falkner, outgoing chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Nigel Farage should offer an unreserved apology to people who allege he targeted them with racist or antisemitic behaviour while at school. Falkner said an apology could be offered even if Farage rejected allegations of deliberate racism. Twenty-eight contemporaries from Dulwich College reported experiencing or witnessing such behaviour. Examples include Peter Ettedgui alleging repeated comments praising Hitler and threats to 'gas' him, and Yinka Bankole alleging a teenage Farage told him 'That's the way back to Africa.' Farage and his spokespeople deny malicious intent, suggest faulty memory or political motives, and Farage reacted angrily at broadcasters. Falkner said she felt confused and disturbed, described the allegations as ghastly on paper, and recognised the passage of decades while remaining concerned.

Read at www.theguardian.com