Richard Tice has rubbished “nonsense” claims Nigel Farage was antisemitic at school after Kemi Badenoch called on the Reform leader to apologise.
Mr Farage has “categorically” denied claims of historic racism made against him, vowing he has done more to defeat extremism in Britain than any other leader.
Now, his deputy has doubled down on the rebuttal on GB News, telling Camilla Tominey the accusations are merely from people “with a political axe to grind”.
Peter Ettedgui, 61, who is now a director, told The Guardian Mr Farage would tell him “Hitler was right” or to “gas them”, occasionally adding a hissing sound to mimick the sound of the gas showers, during his teenage years.
“An allegation of antisemitism that Nigel Farage was going around saying to Jewish students jokes about gassing Jews, it’s totally unacceptable, isn’t it?” Camilla asked.
Mr Tice dodged the question, saying: “There is no one who has stood up for the Jewish community more than Reform UK. We were the first people to call for these hideous pro-Palestine marches to be banned.”
“Why doesn’t he apologise to this BAFTA-winning director?” Camilla pressed.
“These allegations are 49 years old. Why weren’t they made five years ago or ten years ago? I’ll tell you why. Because they’re made up,” Mr Tice ridiculed.
The Reform deputy leader blasted the accusations of being made by those ‘with a political axe to grind’
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“They’re absolutely made-up.”
The reality is that these allegations are made up by people with a serious political bias who don’t want Nigel to be Prime Minister. Can you remember what you said 49 years ago?
“I can remember most things. I don’t think I ever went around joking about gassing the Jews,” Camilla flatly retorted.
“I think this is nonsense. think this is all nonsense.I think this is just made up by people who’ve got a serious political axe to grind.”
Kemi Badenoch called on Nigel Farage to apologise for the alleged antisemitism earlier on Camilla’s show
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The Boston and Skegness MP’s derision for the claim has echoed that of his boss, who previously shared with GB News he “categorically did not say the things published in The Guardian”.
“Isn’t it interesting: I am probably the most scrutinised figure in British politics, having been in public life for 32 years,” he added.
“Several books and thousands of stories have been written about me, but it is only now that my party is leading in the polls that these allegations come out. I will leave the public to draw their own conclusions about why that might be…
“We know that the Guardian wants to smear anybody who talks about the immigration issue. But the truth is that I have done more in my career to defeat extremism and far-right politics than anybody else in the UK, from my time fighting the BNP right up to today.”
Earlier on Camilla’s show, Kemi Badenoch called on Nigel Farage to apologise to the man who accused the Clacton MP of racism during his schoolboy years.
Asked whether Mrs Badenoch believes Mr Farage is racist, she said: “These are things that happened long before I was born. He’s got questions to answer.
“I think the question is, has he changed or not? And I think that is a legitimate question people will ask about your past.
“People ask about all sorts of stuff that happened long before I was an MP.
“He needs to explain himself. It’s not my job to defend him. He’s a big boy. He can go out and defend himself.
She added: “I think that the gentleman who said that Nigel Farage tormented him throughout the time that he was in school and that really impacted his life, he should probably apologise for that, at the very least.”