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2 hours ago
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Opening summary
Good morning. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has given different responses, at different times, to the accounts of him being racist and antisemitic when he was a teenager given by some of his contempories at Dulwich College in south London. They have ranged from saying he may have engaged in “banter” using language that, 50 years later, may be regarded as offensive, to saying the claims were entirely without foundation. There is a good summary here.
But today Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, has gone much further, accusing at least one of Farage’s critics of lying and describing the recollections as “made-up twaddle” motivated by political bias.
Tice was being interviewed on the Today programme by Emma Barnett about the decision to delay some mayoral elections in England. Tice described the decision more than once as “dictatorial” and, after a decent discussion about the elections, Barnett (who is Jewish) used the reference to dictators as a cue to ask about Nigel Farage and Hitler. She summed up some of the stories about Farage highighted in the recent Guardian investigation, including Farage telling a Jewish pupil “Hitler was right”, and asked if language like this would amount to racist abuse.
Tice said it would be. But he went on:
I can’t believe anybody would have said that.
Barnett asked: “Including your leader?” And Tice went on:
Yes. This is all made-up twaddle by people who don’t want Nigel to be prime minister of the country. It’s funny how they didn’t remember this three years ago, six years ago, 10 years ago.
Barnett pointed out that Peter Ettedgui, the former pupil who remembers Farage telling him “Hitler was right”, did remember this years ago. He spoke about it to people like Michael Crick, who first reported on some of these allegations more than a decade ago, she said. Barnett said that people who do suffer racist abuse don’t forget it because “it gets etched on your memory”.
But Tice doubled down. He said:
This is this is this is made-up nonsense by someone who’s got a politically biased motive.
And let me tell you; no one has stood up against antisemitism more than Nigel and I. We were the ones who, immediately after October 7, said we were very worried about the protests, the pro-Palestine protest, that were inciting hatred, antsemitism and violence.
Barnett said Tice was accusing Ettedgui of lying. “Yes,” Tice replied.
Barnett went on: “But you don’t know that?”
And Tice replied:
I think this is made-up twaddle by a whole bunch of people with … a political axe to grind.
And every week the voters are going out in byelections and they are voting for Reform because they are not buying into this leftwing, anti-Nigel narrative.
‘Brave’ would be one word that might Tice’s approach in this interview. Readers can probably think of other. It is certainly not the strategy that would have been adopted by anyone taking advice from a libel lawyer beforehand.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister and cheif secretary to the PM, takes questions in the Commons.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in west London.
Morning: Keir Starmer meets Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian prime minister, in Downing Street.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: The final report from the inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was killed in the Salisbury novichok Russian nerve agent attack, is published. Dan Jarvis, the security minister, is due to make a statement on it to MPs.
Afternoon: Starmer and Støre visit RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland where they will announce measures to deal with Russian submarine incursions.
Late afternoon: Starmer visits Glasgow for an event with Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, where they will highlight budget measures that will benefit Scotland.
At at some point today Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, is giving a speech in parliament to MPs and peers as part of his state visit.
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