Nigel Farage turned the tables on the BBC yesterday in a furious row about racism.
The Reform UK leader has been dogged for weeks by questions from the corporation about alleged schoolboy racism, which he denies.
At a dramatic press conference, he rounded on the BBC for ‘double standards’, pointing out that much of its output in the 1970s and 1980s would be considered racist, sexist and homophobic by today’s standards.
He said that if the corporation wanted to apply the standards of today to the 1970s, it should issue an apology for broadcasting programmes such as It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, which is now seen as racist by many.
Mr Farage suggested he would boycott the national broadcaster, adding: ‘I’m done with you. Until you apologise, I’m not speaking to you.’
A Reform source said he would be ‘taking a substantial rest from the biased broadcasting corporation’.
Having called the press conference to talk about Labour’s delays to local elections, Mr Farage rounded on a BBC reporter who asked him again about his days as a schoolboy, saying: ‘The double standards and hypocrisy of the BBC are absolutely astonishing.’
The 61-year-old pointed out that during his time at school in the 1970s and 1980s, the corporation’s output included programmes such as The Black and White Minstrel Show, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Till Death Us Do Part, as well as comedy shows featuring the controversial Bernard Manning – all of which are now deemed beyond the pale by many.
‘At the time I was alleged to have made these remarks, one of your most popular weekly shows was the Black and White Minstrels – right?
‘The BBC were very happy to use blackface… you did it in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum as well,’ he thundered.
‘What about Alf Garnett? Remember that word he used to describe Marigold on prime time, national TV? I better not repeat that word, otherwise you will use it and say that I used it.
‘Homophobia? Perfectly happy at the exact same time for Bernard Manning to appear on prime-time national BBC comedy telling jokes which these days you’d probably get a knock at the door from the police and a 31-month prison sentence. I cannot put up with the double standards of the BBC about what I’m alleged to have said 49 years ago and what you were putting out on mainstream content.
‘So, I want an apology from the BBC for virtually everything you did throughout the 1970s and 80s.’
Comedian Sir Lenny Henry, who appeared in The Black and White Minstrel Show at the start of his career, has in the past criticised 1960s and 1970s shows such as Till Death Us Do Part.
He previously said: ‘Rather than reflect the reality of multi-ethnic Britain, they chose a more xenophobic route – emphasising points of difference instead of similarities.’
The BBC has reported extensively in recent weeks on claims made by some contemporaries of Mr Farage from his days at Dulwich College, in London, who allege he made racist and anti-Semitic comments, including one who claims the Reform UK leader told him: ‘Hitler was right.’
Radio Four Today presenter Emma Barnett yesterday asked the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice to discuss Mr Farage’s ‘relationship with Hitler’.
Mr Farage said the framing of her question was ‘despicable, disgusting beyond belief’, adding: ‘Are you surprised that half a million people every year refuse to pay the licence fee?’
The Reform leader continued to deny he ever made racist remarks in a ‘malicious or nasty way’. He read out a letter from another Dulwich schoolboy, who painted a different picture of his time there.
‘I was a Jewish pupil at Dulwich College at the same time and I remember him very well,’ he read.
‘While there was plenty of macho tongue-in-cheek schoolboy banter, it was humour, and yes, sometimes it was offensive… but never with malice.
‘I never heard him racially abuse anyone. If he had, he would have been reported and punished. He wasn’t. The news stories are without evidence, except for belatedly, politically dubious recollections from nearly half a century ago.
‘Back in the 1970s the culture was very different… especially at Dulwich. Lots of boys said things they’d regret today or just laugh at. Whilst Nigel stood out, he was neither aggressive nor a racist.’
Mr Farage said he had ‘plenty’ of similar messages over the past few days, later claiming he had seen about half a dozen.
One former classmate, Peter Ettedgui, who is Jewish, has claimed that Mr Farage ‘repeatedly’ approached him at school and said ‘Hitler was right’.
Mr Tice yesterday said Mr Farage’s accusers were ‘lying’, adding: ‘This is made up twaddle by people who don’t want Nigel to be Prime Minister.’
The BBC was asked to comment but did not respond.
Labour Party chairman Anna Turley said: ‘Nigel Farage can’t get his story straight.
‘It really shouldn’t be this difficult to say whether he racially abused people in the past. So far, he’s claimed he can’t remember, that it’s not true, that he never ‘directly’ abused anyone, that he was responsible for ‘offensive banter’, and deflected by saying other people were racist too.
‘Instead of shamelessly demanding apologies from others, Nigel Farage should be apologising to the victims of his alleged appalling remarks.’
A Conservative spokesman said Mr Farage’s tirade showed that ‘Reform’s one-man band is in chaos once again’.
The spokesman added: ‘Nigel Farage just called a press conference and used it to rant at journalists over historic allegations of racism and anti-Semitism – allegations he has just admitted are true.
‘Farage is too busy furiously defending himself to defend democracy from the Labour Party’s elections delays.’
The row came as it emerged Reform has received the biggest single donation in history to a British political party from a living person.
The Electoral Commission revealed that British businessman Christopher Harborne gave the party £9million in the summer.
Mr Harborne is a cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur who lives in Thailand. He has previously donated large sums to the Brexit Party and the Conservatives under Boris Johnson.
Now ‘dictator’ Prime Minister postpones four polls Reform might win
The Prime Minister was branded a ‘dictator’ who is ‘running scared’ after he cancelled four mayoral elections that Reform had been tipped to win.
Keir Starmer was also accused of ‘electoral fraud’ by Nigel Farage for putting back next year’s polls until 2028.
He even faced anger from a former Labour minister who said the Government had a ‘moral and legal obligation’ to go ahead with the mayoral elections on time.
But Downing Street repeatedly refused to apologise for the postponement, despite claims that town hall leaders were ready to set up the new combined county authorities.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told the BBC: ‘Generally it’s dictators that cancel elections. Some 7.5million people are now going to be denied the opportunity of voting in mayoral elections.
‘Funny isn’t it, we’ve just announced our mayoral candidates for all of these areas and all of a sudden the Government, terrified of losing to Reform, are cancelling them. I think they’re just running scared.’
Mr Farage said: ‘I spoke to a senior member of an Essex council this morning who told me, word for word, ‘the councils are ready for these elections, and we have spent millions across the county of Essex alone in preparation’.
‘The fact that these mayoral contests are to be postponed for a further two years is monstrous given, firstly that the electorate was told they would go ahead, given the amount of money that’s been spent in preparing for them.’
He pointed out that Electoral Calculus polling suggested Reform was in line to win all of the cancelled elections – in Essex, Sussex and Hampshire along with Norfolk and Suffolk.
‘The Government are basically committing electoral fraud upon the electorate, who had every opportunity to put the four mayors in place.’
Mr Farage also indicated his party may try to challenge the Government’s decision in the courts, forcing it to hold the mayoral polls in 2026 as originally planned.
Shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said: ‘Democracy is being denied yet again after the council elections cancelled by Labour this year.
‘There is no credible justification for this move. The Labour Government must reverse it immediately.’
In the Commons, Jim McMahon – who was local government minister until September’s reshuffle – said: ‘We need to be better than this.
‘The Government have a moral and a legal obligation to honour their side of the bargain. Following a statutory process, all involved had a reasonable expectation that these elections would go ahead.’
But his successor Miatta Fahnbulleh said the delay would allow the new authorities to be properly set up before mayors are in post.
No 10 declined to say if Sir Keir was happy with how long it was taking to set up the new authorities. A spokesman said: ‘Holding these elections in May 2028 gives these areas time to finish reorganising first so devolution can work properly from day one.’
QUENTIN LETTS: The genius of Starmer… just put off any election you look like losing!
Sir Keir Starmer’s people have hit on a brilliant way of not losing elections: keep postponing them. This, admittedly, means a junior minister must face tricky questioning in the Commons. But junior ministers, like wooden legs, are replaceable.
The poor thing delegated to face the House yesterday was Miatta Fahnbulleh, parliamentary under-strapper for local government. Became an MP only last year. Expendable.
News had broken overnight that four much-vaunted mayoral elections were to be delayed by two years. This followed the cancellation, earlier this year, of local elections in nine areas of England. The reason? ‘Are you mad? Look at our opinion poll ratings! We might lose to Reform.’
Ministers did not quite put it like that. Instead there was stuff about ‘needing more time to organise local devolution’.
Ms Fahnbulleh burbled. Waved her hands. Spoke of ‘our commitment to the creation of strategic authorities and mayors who can unlock economic potential and deliver for communities’. She looked up and went misty-eyed as the following line dropped huskily from her lips: ‘That will always be our guiding star, our lodestar.’ Pure Keats.
As an opponent of cynicism, I take no pleasure in reporting that this poetic, nay, astrological claim was greeted by burpy laughter from Tories.
Ms Fahnbulleh was deputising for her secretary of state, Steve Reed, who had tried to get away with a written ministerial statement.
The furtive Reed, like David Lammy, does not enjoy answering urgent questions. He considers them below his own magnificence. Same with Rachel Reeves, who on Wednesday was asked an urgent question about the resignation of the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s boss. The speed at which Ms Reeves dashed from the chamber immediately after PMQs, when that matter was about to be raised, was remarkable.
She’d be mustard in a regional athletics relay team. At last. Something she might actually be able to do.
With her swift exit she ensured that urgent question was answered instead by James Murray. The mortuary attendant. One moment you are enjoying life, the next you feel a whiff of formaldehyde at your neck and there’s Murray the Morgue, lisping his sympathies on your loss and asking if you’d like Grandpa shaved and dressed in his novelty waistcoat for the wake.
Back to poor Ms Fahnbulleh. Try as she might to waffle about ‘strong strategic authorities’, ‘time frames’, ‘investment pipelines’ and ‘our partners on the ground’ (Mr Murray prefers them ‘in’ the ground), she was accused of running from the electorate.
Even her predecessor, Jim McMahon (Lab, Oldham W), had a go.
‘We need to be better than this,’ intoned gloomy Jim. ‘The Government is worried about being trounced in elections,’ roared Sir Edward Leigh (Con, Gainsborough). Nigel Farage (Ref, Clacton) managed to say something about ‘a dog’s dinner’ before he was halted by the Deputy Speaker for breaking Commons protocols. Brother Farage has yet to conquer the House.
Few Labour MPs bothered to attend. It was the same earlier at Cabinet Office questions. Indeed, that session had to be suspended because the House had run out of MPs.
Two government Whips, Nesil Caliskan and Deirdre Costigan, were startled when this occurred. They should have spent less of their time gawping at their mobile phones and more time watching what was going on in the chamber.
The government Whips’ office is a mess at present. Labour backbenchers possibly realise this, which may be why so many are agitating for the Chancellor to be sacked before Christmas. The Chief Whip looks semi-detached. His deputy, Mark ‘Smarmy’ Tami, is seldom seen. Another Whip, Christian Wakefield, trudges round Westminster day after day in the same crumpled suit and filthy yellow shoes, looking panicked. The only one who seems to do any work is Genevieve Kitchen, 30.
Downing Street should do something but it won’t. After all, one Whip is married to Sir Keir’s chief poisoner, Morgan McSweeney, and another is married to Amy Richards, one of Sir Keir’s top munchkins. What a crew.
