Sajid Javid Urges Farage to Apologise for Alleged Racist School Remarks
Former cabinet minister Sajid Javid has called on Nigel Farage to apologise over allegations that he made racist and antisemitic comments as a schoolboy, arguing that accountability begins with acknowledging past behaviour.
Sajid Javid
Javid’s intervention follows a The Guardian investigation in which more than 30 of Farage’s contemporaries at Dulwich College accused the Reform UK leader of racist and antisemitic bullying during his school years.
Farage has denied directly targeting anyone with racist or antisemitic abuse and said he never intended to hurt anyone. Earlier this month he dismissed the claims as politically motivated and described them as “complete made up fantasies”.
Speaking in a wide ranging interview with the Sunday Times Magazine, Javid said that even if the remarks were dismissed at the time as banter, they were clearly unacceptable.
“He could well be a totally different person today,” Javid said. “But to demonstrate you are a different person, it starts with an apology, and he hasn’t done that yet. That’s what disturbs me.”
Integration and accountability
Javid, who became the first home secretary from a minority ethnic background in 2018, reflected on his own family’s experience of integration after his parents moved to the UK from Pakistan. Born in Rochdale, he did not speak English when he started primary school but went on to serve as chancellor of the exchequer, home secretary and health secretary.
“If we talk about British Muslims, I think it is a success story of integration,” he said. “Today Britain has become, in my opinion, the most successful multiracial society on earth.”
The Guardian investigation published in November detailed fresh allegations against Farage. Among those making claims was the award winning Jewish filmmaker Peter Ettedgui, who said Farage used phrases such as “Hitler was right” and “gas them”, accompanied by hissing noises mimicking gas chambers.
A month later, 26 former schoolmates signed an open letter urging Farage to apologise. They said their anger stemmed not only from what they described as hurtful behaviour years ago, but from his refusal to acknowledge or apologise for it.
A violent childhood revealed
In the same interview, Javid also spoke candidly about his own childhood, revealing that he believed it was normal to be beaten by his father. His forthcoming memoir, The Colour of Home, describes a difficult upbringing marked by violence, including an incident in which he was sent to A&E after a hammer was thrown at his head.
Born to Pakistani parents, Javid recalled crouching into a ball as his father beat him with a slipper or wooden spoon.
“I thought it was normal,” he said. “I also knew other British Pakistani families where it wasn’t dissimilar. But there’s no logical reason for that, and when you grow up it can have a permanent impact.”
He said those experiences shaped his politics. “I resolved I would never hit a child,” he said, adding that as home secretary he focused strongly on policies to protect children.
Poverty, racism, and reconciliation
Javid grew up above his father’s fashion shop in Bristol, sharing a two bedroom flat with his four brothers. He described episodes of poverty and racism, including one morning when the family found the words “P go home” scrawled across the shopfront.
Despite a difficult relationship, including failed attempts by his parents to arrange a marriage for him with a first cousin, Javid said his father apologised towards the end of his life for beating him as a child.
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Immigration and cohesion
Javid also offered a stark assessment of modern immigration policy, saying that if he were still in office he would not allow his own parents to migrate under today’s system.
“The biggest block to good community cohesion is English,” he said. “We should have set a requirement long ago that if you want to settle in the UK, you should be able to speak fluent English.”
His comments came after Labour announced that migrants would be required to meet an A level standard of English to enter the UK through legal routes. Javid said net migration had risen too sharply during Conservative led governments, peaking at nearly a million a year, and argued that lower levels were essential for stronger community cohesion.
Life after politics
Javid left a senior role at Deutsche Bank to enter politics in 2009, was elected to parliament the following year, and rose quickly through the cabinet. He stood down at the 2024 general election and was knighted the same year for public service.
He has since returned to finance as a partner at London investment firm Centricus and now serves as the first Muslim chair of the Holocaust Memorial Trust.
But on the issue of alleged racism, Javid was clear that time alone was not enough. Change, he said, must be demonstrated, and that begins with a simple step: an apology.
