Yinka Bankole, a former pupil at Dulwich College, has alleged that Nigel Farage, then a 17-year-old student, told him 'that's the way back to Africa' during a racist encounter in the early 1980s. Bankole, now 54, said he felt compelled to speak out after the Reform UK leader attempted to 'deny or dismiss' the hurt caused to alleged targets of his past behaviour.
Bankole, who attended the school for a year from age nine, recalled being singled out by Farage in the lower-school playground. 'He towered over me. 'Where are you from?' he asked. Within seconds of offering my rather confused and sputtering answers, he had a clear response: 'That's the way back to Africa,' with an accompanying hand gesture pointing towards a place far away,' Bankole said. He added that Farage would wait at the lower-school gate to repeat the comment.
Bankole's decision to go public followed Farage's press conference on Thursday, where he denied being racist or antisemitic with 'malice' and criticised the BBC and ITV for questioning him about the allegations. Bankole described this as 'the most amazingly disingenuous example of the phrase 'let he without sin cast the first stone'' and 'the final straw'.
Farage has previously admitted he may have said things in 'banter' at school that could be viewed differently today, but denied saying anything racist or antisemitic 'directly' at an individual. Bankole is one of 28 former Dulwich contemporaries who claim to have witnessed offensive behaviour by Farage. A lawyer for Reform UK has 'categorically denied' that Farage engaged in racist or antisemitic behaviour.
