Nigel Farage condemned after new school revelations

Emily Price

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been condemned following fresh allegations by a former teacher that he was racist and antisemitic towards fellow pupils when he was a teenager.

On Sunday (December 28) the Guardian newspaper reported how ex-Dulwich teacher Chloë Deakin had written to the college master in 1981 to argue against Farage’s nomination as a prefect when he was 17-years-old.

At the time Deakin – now 74-years-old – worked as an English teacher at the south-east London college.

Speaking to the Guardian she recalled a discussion which took place decades ago with a class of 11 and 12-year-olds in which a young Farage was branded a “bully”.

Deakin alleged that her colleagues corroborated accounts of harassment of fellow pupils and Farage’s apparent fascination with the far right, including claims that he had been “goose-stepping” on combined cadet force marches.

The former teacher said she was “shocked” to find out that Farage had been put on a draft list of prefects.

Deakin’s 1981 letter of concern was first revealed by the Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick in a report in 2013.

She wrote: “You will recall that at the recent and lengthy meeting about the selection of prefects, the remark by a colleague that Farage was a ‘fascist but that was no reason why he would not make a good prefect’ invoked considerable reaction from members of the [staff] common room.

“Another colleague, who teaches the boy, described his publicly professed racist and neo-fascist views, and he cited a particular incident in which Farage was so offensive to a boy in his set that he had to be removed from his lesson …

“Yet another colleague described how, at a [combined cadet force] camp organised by the college, Farage and others had marched through a quiet Sussex village very late at night shouting Hitler Youth songs; and when it was suggested by a master that boys who expressed such views ‘don’t really mean them’, the college chaplain himself commented that, on the contrary, in his experience views of that kind expressed by boys of that age are deep-seated and are meant.”

‘Compassionate’

She added: “You will appreciate that I regard this as a very serious matter. I have often heard you tell our senior boys that they are the nation’s future leaders. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that these leaders are enlightened and compassionate.”

Deakin’s interview with the Guardian comes following a series of stories by the newspaper which detailed allegations from more than 30 of Farage’s school contemporaries who recounted incidents of offensive and racist behaviour throughout his teenage years.

Farage’s lawyer initially denied any racist or antisemitic behaviour and threatened to sue the Guardian over its coverage of the Reform leader’s school days.

In an interview with the BBC’s political editor in Wales, Farage said school “banter” might be construed differently today and denied targeting anyone “directly” or with “intent” to hurt.

Plot

The Clacton MP has also claimed that the revelations about his past were being made as part of a political plot to undermine him.

A recent YouGov poll on voting intention for the next general election in 2029 has suggested that Reform UK’s lead is under threat – dropping from 10 to five points with the party’s vote share falling by three points to 25 per cent – its lowest in over six months.

Both the Labour Party and the Conservatives saw a two-point increase – reaching 20 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.

Ahead of the May Senedd election, polling indicates Plaid Cymru and Reform UK are almost neck and neck in the race to be the largest party in Wales, while incumbent Welsh Labour has seen its support drop to historic lows.

Reform was expected to win the recent October Caerphilly by-election and Nigel Farage himself visited the south Wales constituency several times.

Russia

However, Reform was beaten comfortably by Plaid Cymru candidate Lindsay Whittle.

Campaigning by Reform candidate Llyr Powell was overshadowed by news that the party’s former Welsh leader, Nathan Gill, had admitted to taking bribes in return for making pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament.

The former MEP was sentenced to over 10 years in prison in November at the Old Bailey in London.

A Reform UK source told Nation.Cymru that controversies about Farage’s school days and Gill’s court appearance were having an impact on party support.

The insider said: “Nigel Farage bangs on about his being the only reason we get votes but with the party sliding in the polls it goes both ways.

“All those skeletons he has just like the Gill stuff in Wales for Caerphilly candidate Llyr puts voters off, even if not true they now think twice about voting Reform UK.

“Everyone heard it knocking the doors in Caerphilly. At this rate, Farage at the helm will cost Reform being the next government over in London.”

‘Pattern’

Labour Senedd Member Alun Davies says Farage’s “lifelong pattern of behaviour” wasn’t receiving appropriate scrutiny.

He said: “The issue for me here isn’t necessarily what Farage said as a teenager – everyone has the right to make mistakes as they grow up – but what is important is that he went on to be a supporter of the British National Party and other far right, racist and antisemitic organisations – and now denies all these things and tries to laugh them off.

“It is his racism and dishonesty together with his support for modern-day fascists such as Putin that taken together creates a lifelong pattern of behaviour which is never properly scrutinised.”

In comments made over a decade ago during an interview with GQ magazine, Farage said that Russian president Vladimir Putin was the world leader he admired the most.

The Clacton MP has since said he has been “been wildly misquoted” over it.

In a BBC appearance in the run-up to last year’s general election Farage said he disliked Putin as a person, “but admired him as a political operator, because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.”