Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has failed to apologise to Nigel Farage after claiming the Reform UK leader “flirted with Hitler Youth” during his school days, instead offering a clarification that stopped short of withdrawing the controversial comments.
The inflammatory remarks came during a BBC interview at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, where Mr Lammy was questioned about whether he considered the Reform UK leader to be racist. Rather than directly answering, the Deputy Prime Minister stated he would “leave it to the public to come to their own judgment about someone who once flirted with Hitler Youth when he was younger.”
Within hours, Mr Lammy returned to the BBC to walk back his comments, though notably without issuing a formal apology. “He has denied it. And so I accept that he has denied it,” the Deputy Prime Minister stated, adding: “I would like to clarify that position, because in the end, the Prime Minister was keen for us to focus on the policies, not the individual.”
Historical Allegations Resurface
Mr Lammy’s comments appeared to reference allegations dating back to 1981, when a teacher at Dulwich College wrote a letter claiming that the teenage Farage and other cadets had “marched through a quiet Sussex village very late at night shouting Hitler Youth songs” during a Combined Cadet Force camp.
The allegations stem from correspondence written by English teacher Chloe Deakin to the school’s headmaster David Emms, objecting to Farage being made a prefect. In the letter, Deakin reported that during a staff meeting, one colleague described Farage as “a fascist, but that was no reason why he would not make a good prefect,” prompting “considerable reaction” from other teachers.
Another teacher allegedly described Farage’s “publicly professed racist and neo-fascist views” and cited an incident where Farage was reportedly removed from a lesson for offensive behaviour towards another pupil. The letter also contained the claim about Hitler Youth songs during CCF activities.
Mr Farage has consistently and vehemently denied these allegations since they first emerged publicly in 2013. “I don’t know any Hitler Youth songs, in English or German,” he stated at the time, dismissing the claims as “complete baloney.”
The Reform UK leader did acknowledge being provocative as a teenager, admitting: “Of course I said some ridiculous things, not necessarily racist things. It depends how you define it.” However, he has always maintained that any suggestion of involvement in far-right politics was “utterly untrue.”
Labour Conference Tensions
The controversy erupted during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, where Sir Keir Starmer delivered a forceful keynote address targeting Reform UK’s immigration policies. The Prime Minister declared Labour would “fight you with everything we have” in the lead-up to the next general election.
During his speech, Starmer branded Reform UK’s policy to scrap indefinite leave to remain status as “racist and immoral,” arguing it would target people who are lawfully resident in Britain. “It is one thing to say we’re going to remove illegal migrants, people who have no right to be here. I’m up for that,” Starmer stated. “It is a completely different thing to say we are going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and start removing them.”
The Prime Minister mentioned Reform UK by name three times during his conference speech and referenced Nigel Farage directly on four occasions, whilst notably not mentioning Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at all. This focus on Reform UK reflects Labour’s concern about the party’s rising poll numbers, with recent surveys showing Reform leading both Labour and the Conservatives in voting intentions.
Farage’s Furious Response
Mr Farage responded swiftly to Labour’s sustained attacks, characterising them as “obsessive” during his own public address. He accused the Prime Minister of choosing to “descend into the gutter” with personal attacks rather than engaging in substantive political debate.
“This is a desperate last throw of the dice from a Prime Minister who’s in deep trouble, a Prime Minister who can’t even command the support of half of his own party,” Farage stated during a live broadcast responding to Starmer’s speech.
The Reform UK leader went further, suggesting that Labour’s rhetoric posed a danger to his party’s activists. “This language will incite and encourage the radical left. I’m thinking of Antifa and other organisations like that. It directly threatens the safety of our elected officials and our campaigners,” he claimed, adding: “Frankly, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, I think this is an absolute disgrace.”
Farage argued that by labelling his party’s policies as racist, “by implication, Reform supporters, Reform voters, Reform sympathisers are racist too.” He characterised this as “a very, very low blow” that accused “countless millions” of racism.
Political Analysis Divided
The exchange has prompted mixed reactions from political commentators. Lord Walney, the former independent adviser on political violence, described Farage’s response to Starmer’s speech as “silly and shrill” on social media platform X.
He suggested that whilst Sir Keir’s choice of words when calling Reform’s policy racist “was not astute,” it was “not credible to say they will incite the hard left to increased political violence against Reform,” noting that radical left groups “hate Labour and don’t exactly follow Keir’s lead.”
Political analyst John Rentoul observed on GB News that Starmer appeared to be attempting to frame the next election as a direct contest between himself and Farage. “I personally think it was a mistake to call Nigel Farage a racist,” Rentoul stated. I could see why he did it, Keir Starmer saying that doesn’t mean he’s calling Reform UK supporters or voters racists, but I think that’s a distinction that gets lost in translation.
Former MEP Martin Daubney added: “The first person to mention Adolf Hitler in any political debate loses. It’s one of the rules of life.”
Reform UK’s Immigration Policy Under Fire
The controversy centres on Reform UK’s proposed immigration policy, which includes plans to scrap “indefinite leave to remain” status for legal immigrants. Under the proposal, immigrants who have lived legally in the UK for decades could face deportation if they do not meet certain income requirements.
Deputy Prime Minister Lammy defended the government’s criticism of this policy, stating: “This is calling out his policies, his policies that would line people up who have a right to be in this country, who might be Indian, who might be Nigerian, and send them home. It’s not British. It doesn’t respect our values.”
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed he was calling Reform’s policy racist, not Mr Farage himself, though his subsequent Hitler Youth comments appeared to blur that distinction.
Historical Context
The 1981 letter that sparked Mr Lammy’s comments has been a recurring controversy for Mr Farage throughout his political career. Former pupils who were present at the time have disputed aspects of the allegations, with one contemporary writing that whilst offensive songs were sung by cadets, they were not Nazi songs and nobody knew any German lyrics.
The allegations first resurfaced publicly in 2013 when Channel 4 News obtained the letter, prompting renewed scrutiny of Farage’s school days. Additional claims emerged in 2016 when an anonymous former schoolfriend published allegations in The Independent, though Farage has consistently denied all such accusations.
The timing of Mr Lammy’s comments, coming at a crucial moment in Labour’s conference when the party faces dire polling and internal dissent, suggests a calculated attempt to shift focus onto Reform UK’s controversial policies and leadership.
As Labour struggles with record-low approval ratings for both Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the party appears to be adopting a more confrontational approach towards Reform UK, viewing Farage’s party as the primary electoral threat ahead of the next general election scheduled for 2029.
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Image Credit:
David Lammy — official portrait (cropped), licensed under CC BY 4.0
