Lord Mann accuses Farage of ‘appalling attempt’ to ‘shrug off’ allegations of antisemitism

He continued: "The British people expect all their party leaders to act with integrity and humility and are unforgiving of those who choose not to. Nigel Farage must confront the seriousness of this situation and apologise in person."

The leader of Reform UK insisted in an interview with ITV News on Monday that he "never directly racially abused anybody", while admitting he may have “misspoken” in his youth.

However, Petter Ettedgui, the Emmy award-winning producer and director who publicly spoke up about the abuse he received from Farage, told the BBC in an interview that Farage was being “fundamentally dishonest" and the implication that he and other students were not telling the truth made him "really angry".

In response to Ettedgui’s latest comments, Farage told GB News: "I categorically deny saying those things, to that one individual, and frankly, frankly for The Guardian and the BBC to be going back just shy of half a century to come out with this stuff it shows how desperate they are."

Last night, The Guardian published three more accounts from students at Dulwich. One of them, Stefan Benarroch, is Jewish and seemed to back up Ettedgui’s version of events.

“He [Ettedgui] was such a gentle soul and Farage – Farage made his life a f***ing nightmare,” he told the paper.

“They could only identify us because we had to go to this stupid Jewish service in the science labs school. I mean, none of us were remotely religious. They would hang out there. Farage would hang out with his minions. And then they would taunt us as we would leave.”

Labour and Liberal Democrat political figures have urged Farage to “come clean” about the comments he is alleged to have made, with former Jewish Labour Movement chair Lord Katz urging him to apologise to those who have spoken out.

Addressing the issue at PMQs on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer, whose wife Lady Victoria is Jewish, said: “The more we see of Reform, the more we see of their true colours.

"[Farage’s] explanation...is unconvincing to say the least.

"He says he never engaged with racism with ‘intent’, what does that mean? I have no doubt that if a young Jewish student was hissed at to mimic the sound of a gas chamber, they would find it upsetting.

"He may want to forget that, they won’t...he should seek those people out and go and apologise to them.”

In a statement last night, Farage said that he categorically “did not say the things that have been published in the Guardian aged 13, nearly 50 years ago”.

He continued: "Isn’t it interesting? I am probably the most scrutinised figure in British politics, having been in public life for 32 years. 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.”