Farage says he thought Enoch Powell was right to raise scale of community change

Nigel Farage said he had thought Enoch Powell was “right to talk about not having vast community change” as he defended himself amid allegations of racism in his youth.

The Reform UK leader suggested former pupils complaining about his behaviour while attending a top public school had “different political views to me” but that he was “sorry” if someone had been “hurt”.

He insisted he “never, ever, ever would have said or done anything like that directly to a human being” as he faced questions about the accusations relating to his time at Dulwich College.

In a report published last week by The Guardian, more than a dozen school contemporaries of Mr Farage, 61, recounted alleged incidents of deeply offensive behaviour during his teenage years.

Asked if he would like to apologise to anyone who was hurt by his alleged comments, Mr Farage told a press conference in Westminster on Wednesday: “Well, one person says they were hurt.

“If they feel they were hurt then I’m genuinely sorry, but I never, ever, ever would have said or done anything like that directly to a human being, absolutely not.”

Pressed again about the row, Mr Farage added: “If you look at what they said, none of them said I directly attacked them or abused them.

“What they do say, what they do say very clearly, is they had different political views to me.

“That, you know, I thought Enoch Powell was right about the common market, which I did, in the referendum.

“It was a minority position but I held it all the way back then. And I thought he was right to talk about, you know, not having vast community change, and by the way, that was a big source of political debate back in the late 1970s.”

On Monday, Mr Farage was repeatedly asked by broadcasters whether he could rule out that he engaged in racial abuse.

“I would never, ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way,” he replied, later adding that if he had, it was “not with intent”.

The Reform leader then said that what could have been considered “banter in a playground” could be interpreted in “the modern light of day in some sort of way”.

On Tuesday, he released a statement that said: “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.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Farage’s response to the allegations was “unconvincing to say the least” and urged the Reform UK leader to apologise to people he may have hurt.

The Prime Minister claimed Mr Farage “clearly remembers some of what happened” and that he is showing his “true colours”.

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Mr Farage’s former classmate Peter Ettedgui suggested the Reform leader was being “fundamentally dishonest” in his denials.

Mr Ettedgui, who is Jewish, also claimed while speaking to the broadcaster that Mr Farage had “repeatedly” approached him and said “Hitler was right”, while they were both pupils at Dulwich College.

Reform has also faced scrutiny in recent days over the sentencing of the party’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, after he admitted being paid £40,000 to make pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Mr Farage questioned how he could feasibly carry out any investigation over the revelations.

But he dismissed the Prime Minister’s claim that Reform UK was “riddled with pro-Putin propaganda” as “nonsense”.

Asked whether the party should order a probe after Gill was jailed for 10-and-a-half years, Mr Farage said: “Did Ukip have a problem with an MEP who clearly was corrupt? Yes, it did.

“Did he join Reform very briefly in Wales? He did very briefly. He was leader.

“I can’t investigate Ukip in the European Parliament in 2018 – how do I do that? Can I read people’s emails? Can I take their mobile phones? How on earth can I investigate that?

“What I would welcome, though, is a broader investigation because I’m quite worried about Chinese influence. I’m worried about people who should be on spy trials that suddenly are not. I’m worried about a giant embassy over some of the most important communication cables and sections in London.”