Farage Demands BBC Apology For ‘Double Standards’ Over Race

Nigel Farage called for an apology from the BBC during a furious outburst at a press conference today.

BBC Radio 4′s Today co-host Emma Barnett also clashed with Reform deputy, Richard Tice, over what she called Farage’s “relationship” with Adolf Hitler on Thursday morning.

Responding to that interview, and the ongoing racism allegations, Farage told a BBC reporter: “I thought this morning’s performance by one of your lower-grade presenters [Emma Barnett] on the Today programme was utterly disgraceful.

“I think, to frame a question around the leader of Reform’s ‘relationship’ with Hitler, which is how she framed it, was despicable, disgusting beyond belief.

“Are you surprised that half a million people every year refuse to pay the licence fee?”

He continued: “The double standards and hypocrisy of the BBC are absolutely astonishing. The time I was alleged to have made these remarks, one of your most popular weekly shows was the ’Black and White Ministrel [Show].’”

This programme ran from 1958 to 1978 and was accused of using out-dated stereotypes towards the second half of its 20-year run.

He said: “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.”

He also claimed he had received many letters from former school peers from his time at Dulwich College, and read one out during the press conference.

The contemporary, who was not named, supposedly said Farage had just used “schoolboy banter”, which was occasionally offensive but “never with malice”.

When the BBC reporter tried to circle back to his original question about the accuracy of the claims against him, Farage just moved on to a different press question.

He told the reporter: “Until you apologise for all of your [BBC] output, your appalling output at the same that I’m accused of saying these things that I deny – I’m not speaking to you.”

Asked if he was going to sue Barnett over defamation, he said such legal claims take up a lot of “emotional and legal capital”.

Listen to Barnett’s full exchange with Tice here: