The scandal that refuses to die: in December 2025, a BBC Radio 4 broadcast became the stage for a fresh row over Nigel Farage’s alleged “schoolboy sins”. But in April 2026, the issue flared up all over again — fuelled by new witness accounts and Reform UK’s political gains. If you missed it, here is what happened and why it matters right now.
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What blew up on air in December 2025
During a live edition of the Today programme, presenter Emma Barnett asked Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice: “Let’s talk about your leader Nigel Farage’s relationship with Hitler in his younger years.” She was referring to reports in The Guardian alleging that, while at Dulwich College in the 1970s, Farage sang Holocaust-related “gas chamber” jokes, performed Nazi salutes, and mocked Jewish and Asian pupils.
Tice dismissed the claims as “fabrications”, but Farage erupted. He announced a boycott of the BBC and demanded an apology over what he called “double standards”. He pointed to 1970s and 1980s BBC-era shows such as The Black and White Minstrel Show and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, arguing that offensive material had once been broadcast openly. “You were putting racism on air every week, and now you’re digging into my youth from 49 years ago?” he said at a press conference, branding the question a “disgrace” and “vile”.
