'No repentance': Former Dulwich schoolmate of Nigel Farage says 'an apology would be a starting point' following racism claims

Mr Bankole, whose parents moved to the UK from Nigeria in the 1950s, joined Dulwich College at the age of nine.

It's there he alleges a 17-year-old Mr Farage made a string of racist comments - namely one occasion in which he claims the Clacton MP told to "go back to Africa".

Speaking with Matthew Wright, Mr Bankole explained the moment he decided to go public with the comments, made more than four decades ago.

"When you know someone who has actually shown so much hate towards your existence - based on how you look - for me the trigger point was me listening to him like that

"When he pretends to be a victim - that triggered me."

Mr Farage continues to deny that he made the racist remarks in a “malicious or nasty way”, adding that he "never directly racially abused anybody" while at Dulwich College.

Read more: Nigel Farage allegedly told fellow Dulwich College pupil 'that’s the way back to Africa'

Read more: Holocaust survivors call on Nigel Farage to apologise for alleged racist abuse

It's the latest in a string of accusations levelled at Mr Farage linked to comments made during his time at the College.

Speaking of his rise as Reform UK leader, Mr Bankole said: "How can a man like him be PM in a multicultural forward looking country."

Expanding on the decision to go public with his experience, Mr Bankole said that move was a difficult one.

"There was a time when he was in an election in Clacton against a black Labour candidate - I thought poor guy."

"I would have gone to help him - but the thought of going public is not easy," he recounts.

"For me it’s a trigger when you see someone claiming things - a mismatch of words in the past few weeks."

The Reform UK leader has faced claims about his behaviour while he was a pupil at Dulwich College, a top private school in south London.

Earlier this week, Farage turned on the BBC as he demanded an apology over racism allegations, with the number of those speaking out against the Reform UK leader hitting 28.

The remarks come as a group of Holocaust survivors also demanded Mr Farage tell the truth and apologise for the antisemitic comments he allegedly made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

Explaining his time at school with Mr Farage, Mr Bankole told of how he would allegedly "approach and ask where are you from - without me answering he just said: “go back to Africa”.

It's a sentence Mr Bankole claims has stayed with him ever since.

"It’s not classroom banter  - as he claims - it was someone of 17 yo talking to me (nine years old) and then he would just walk away."

Asked whether an apology would be accepted and allow Mr Bankole to move forward, he explained that "an apology would be a starting point".

"It’s not for me to dictate how bullies should carry themselves… My position is to express what happened so the public knows about it… so that we know what the people who are putting themselves for office are really like."

"How he deals with the allegations of the last three weeks - no repentance," Mr Bankole added.

"Instead he tosses back that he is a victim. Let he without sin cast the first stone.

"It’s all his action - an apology would be a starting point… how can he apologise if he's crowded by people behind the scenes who are racist - I don't know what he could do for me to believe his sincerity."

Another Former classmate of Mr Farage claims to have witnessed antisemitic abuse.

Stefan Benarroch, who was one year below Mr Farage, told LBC’s Natasha Devon he “caused absolute chaos at that school”.

He said: “The only reason that I came across him was because I'm a Jew. So he would reasonably often, not all the time, but reasonably often, him and his minions, and that's important, would be hanging outside Jewish prayers.

“So we had a Jewish service every Friday that we had to attend. And they were in the science labs and they would hang outside the science labs and they would be able to identify us as Jews because we didn't have yellow stars sewn on to our lapels, needless to say. Right.

“And then they would say whatever they would say, and that way we had been identified. And that was really very intimidating for a long time.”