Three more ex-pupils at school with Nigel Farage reject ‘banter’ claims

Three more school contemporaries who claim to have witnessed Nigel Farage’s alleged teenage racism have rejected the Reform UK leader’s suggestion that it was “banter”, describing it as targeted, persistent and nasty.
One former pupil, Stefan Benarroch, claimed that people emerging from a Jewish assembly at Dulwich college had been in the sights of Farage and others for taunts while a second, Cyrus Oshidar, described as “rubbish” the claim that the Reform leader did not act with intent to hurt.
“Being called a Paki isn’t hurtful?” Oshidar asked. A third, Rickard Berg, told the Guardian: “He’s now in a position where he shouldn’t be denying this. He’s straight up lying.”
The Guardian has spoken to more than 20 people who alleged racist or antisemitic behaviour by Farage at school, including seven people who say they recall the targeted abuse of Peter Ettedgui, who is now an Emmy- and Bafta-winning director.
The alleged abuse spanned six years, from age 13 to 18.
On Monday night, Farage broke his silence over allegations that he had targeted fellow pupils for racial and antisemitic abuse, nearly a week after the Guardian published an investigation into his alleged conduct.
His aides previously said that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.
In his broadcast interview, Farage changed tack and appeared to admit to saying things that could be construed as prejudiced today. But he denied any “intent” to inflict hurt on people due to their race or religion.
He said: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter in a playground, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Yes.”
He went on to admit that he “probably” had “misspoken in my younger days” and that he hoped he had not said anything that could be construed as racist but that his recollection was imperfect after more than four decades.
He denied directly abusing anyone, which he defined as “taking it out on an individual on the basis of who they are or what they are”.
He suggested that those who had spoken out were politically motivated and were not “telling the truth”.
In a further statement on Tuesday after the Guardian put fresh allegations to him, Farage appeared to change his stance again. “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published in the Guardian aged 13, nearly 50 years ago,” he said.
He claimed the Guardian wanted to “smear anybody who talks about the immigration issue”.
Writing for the Guardian, Ettedgui, who alleges that Farage as a 13-year-old classmate would say “Hitler was right” or “gas them” to him, claimed: “Well, he did directly target me and I can tell you that it did hurt. How did he think it would make me feel? How does he think those who were called Pakis or told to ‘go home’ felt?”
Benarroch, who is Jewish and was two years below Farage at school, said he did not get personally targeted by him but that he recalled the abuse allegedly meted out to Ettedgui.
“He was such a gentle soul and Farage – Farage made his life a fucking nightmare,” he said.
“They could only identify us, because we had to go to this stupid Jewish service in the science labs school. I mean, none of us were remotely religious. They would hang out there. Farage would hang out with his minions. And then they would taunt us as we would leave.”
Of Farage’s claim that those who had spoken out were not telling the truth, he believes “this is the oldest of the antisemitic tropes”.
He said he considered this was akin to claiming there is a “worldwide Jewish global conspiracy, and in order to have a conspiracy, you have to lie. That is what Reform are accusing us of. It couldn’t get more personal.”
Berg, who was in the same year as Farage during O-levels, said he also recalled the abuse of Ettedgui as being direct and designed to hurt.
He said: “He definitely had a go at Peter and there were a couple of others he would also have a go at. Me being foreign, because I’m Swedish, he sort of made the point that I was foreign, but didn’t have a go at me, because for a start, I stood up to him. The other guys didn’t. Peter Ettedgui never reacted to him. Farage was a bully, typical, picked on the soft guys who wouldn’t stand up, rise to the bait. That’s the way he worked.
“He was nasty, there was no question. [The song] Gas ’em all, I heard him singing it to Ettedgui. I didn’t get it at the time, because Peter didn’t react. Back in the day, you thought it was for him to react.”
Oshidar, who was in the same year as Farage, said he recalled the constant name calling, including the use of antisemitic and racial slurs. “The same sort of noise that came out of him every day,” he claimed, adding that he recognised that it was “the language of that time”.
He claimed: “He wasn’t the only one saying it. But he was the only one in Dulwich saying it regularly.”
Responding to Farage’s denial that he abused anyone directly, he claimed: “No, that’s rubbish. I mean, that’s absolutely rubbish. There’s no question that this happened … Because of who he is now and where he is he will try to deny it. But he can’t. I mean, it’s undeniable.”

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