26 Former Schoolmates Demand Farage Apologise Over Alleged Racist Abuse at Dulwich College

Nigel Farage speaking at a press conference amid allegations about his conduct while a pupil at Dulwich College

Nigel Farage speaking during a press conference at the Royal Horticultural Hall in Westminster. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Twenty-six people who attended Dulwich College with Nigel Farage, including former pupils and a former teacher, signed an open letter in December 2025 calling on the Reform UK leader to acknowledge and apologise for alleged racist and antisemitic conduct during his school years.

The allegations concern Farage's time at the south London private school between 1975 and 1982. They remain disputed: Farage has rejected allegations that he deliberately racially abused fellow pupils and has challenged the way the claims have been reported. The former school contemporaries, however, said their accounts were genuine and rejected suggestions that they were part of a politically motivated campaign.

What the Open Letter Alleged

According to reporting on the letter by The Guardian, the signatories accused Farage of expressing racist, antisemitic and fascist views while at Dulwich College and said his alleged conduct could not simply be explained by the social attitudes of the period.

The letter alleged that Farage directed offensive remarks at pupils of Jewish, Black and Asian backgrounds. Its authors argued that although people should not automatically be judged decades later for everything they did as teenagers, a political leader seeking high office should address credible allegations about his past openly.

The collective letter followed several weeks in which former pupils had publicly described incidents they said they witnessed or experienced. By early December 2025, The Guardian reported that 28 former pupils and teachers had given accounts alleging racist or antisemitic behavior by Farage at the school.

Former Pupils Describe Specific Incidents

One of those who identified himself publicly was Yinka Bankole, who attended Dulwich College in 1980 and 1981. Bankole alleged that a 17-year-old Farage pointed in a direction and told him, "That's the way back to Africa" when Bankole was a much younger pupil. Bankole said the encounter remained vivid decades later and alleged that the behavior was repeated.

This incident echoes similar cases of high-profile figures facing scrutiny over past conduct that have surfaced in recent years.

Film director Peter Ettedgui, who is Jewish and attended Dulwich College with Farage, separately alleged that Farage repeatedly directed antisemitic taunts at him. Ettedgui later described his experience publicly, saying the remarks were targeted and hurtful rather than harmless schoolboy joking.

Other former pupils also disputed Farage's characterization of offensive remarks from the period as "banter." Their accounts are allegations and recollections of events more than four decades earlier, but several contemporaries said they independently remembered similar conduct.

A Controversy With Earlier Roots

Questions about Farage's conduct at Dulwich College did not begin in 2025. In 2013, Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick questioned him about a letter written in June 1981 by a teacher at the school. The letter recorded concerns among members of staff about Farage when he was being considered for appointment as a prefect and referred to allegations about racist or neo-fascist views.

That contemporaneous document is relevant because it shows that concerns about Farage's reputation at school were recorded at the time, rather than originating entirely from recollections made after he became a prominent politician. It does not, by itself, establish every specific allegation subsequently made by former pupils.

Dulwich College Responds

The controversy also prompted a response from Dulwich College. Master Robert Milne described the allegations reported by former pupils as "profoundly distressing" and said the behavior described was incompatible with the values of the modern school.

The school's response did not constitute an independent finding that each allegation against Farage had been proven. Rather, it addressed the seriousness of the accounts being made by former members of the school community and the institution's present-day standards.

Holocaust Survivors Call for an Apology

The dispute broadened beyond former Dulwich pupils when a group of 11 Holocaust survivors called on Farage to address and apologise for the reported antisemitic remarks.

Their intervention followed reports that former pupils had accused Farage of making references to Hitler and gas chambers when speaking to Jewish classmates. The survivors argued that such allegations should not be dismissed as ordinary playground banter.

What the 26 Signatories Asked Farage to Do

The December open letter centered on three requests. Its signatories called on Farage to:

acknowledge that the incidents described by former school contemporaries occurred;
apologise for the alleged conduct; and
make clear that he rejects the racist, antisemitic and fascist views they allege he expressed while at Dulwich College.

The signatories explicitly acknowledged that conduct during adolescence should not necessarily define someone throughout adulthood. Their argument was instead that Farage's status as the leader of a political party made honesty and accountability about the allegations a matter of public interest.

Farage and Reform UK Reject the Claims

Farage has disputed the allegations and challenged the suggestion that he intentionally subjected classmates to racist abuse. During a December 2025 press conference, he cited a letter he said came from a Jewish former Dulwich pupil who remembered offensive schoolboy humor but said he had not heard Farage racially abuse anyone.

Farage also argued that social standards during the 1970s and early 1980s were different from those of today and attacked broadcasters over their coverage of the allegations. Reform UK figures described the accusations as politically motivated; deputy leader Richard Tice publicly rejected the former pupils' testimony.

The former pupils who signed the open letter rejected that characterization. They said their accounts were based on their experiences at Dulwich College and denied that the intervention had been orchestrated because of Reform UK's political position.

What Is Established and What Remains Disputed

The existence of the open letter, the identities of numerous former contemporaries who have publicly given accounts, and the 1981 teacher's letter documenting concerns at Dulwich College are part of the public record. The specific incidents described by former pupils, however, remain allegations disputed by Farage and his party.

That distinction is important. The controversy is not a formal criminal case or judicial proceeding, and there has been no court determination establishing the individual allegations. The public dispute instead concerns competing accounts of Farage's conduct as a teenager, the corroborating recollections offered by former school contemporaries, documentary evidence showing concerns were raised at the school in 1981, and Farage's responses decades later.