Farage accused of singing Hitler Youth songs as Dulwich pupil

Nigel Farage's attempt to portray Ukip as a party that "opposes racism" was in disarray on Thursday night after the leader was accused of making "racist" and "fascist" slurs as a schoolboy.

On the eve of Ukip's conference, Mr Farage was forced to refute claims made in a letter by former teachers at Dulwich College that the young Mr Farage held allegedly racist views.

The letter, obtained by Channel 4 News, details an allegation from 30 years ago that he "marched through a quiet Sussex village very late at night shouting Hilter Youth songs". Mr Farage responded that he "said some ridiculous things, not necessarily racist things," as a schoolboy, but denied singing racist songs, adding: "I don't even know the words."

The Ukip leader has spent much of the summer trying to exert discipline on the party after a string of bad headlines provoked by outlandish remarks by Ukip politicians and donors.

Godfrey Bloom, a Ukip MEP, stoked controversy last month when he said Britain should not be giving aid to countries in "bongo bongo" land while Stuart Wheeler, treasurer, said women were not competitive enough for the boardroom.

The revelations will overshadow the credibility boost that Ukip was hoping for on Friday when Lord Digby Jones, former head of the CBI and one-time Labour trade minister, speaks at the conference.

"I know people will presume I'm a Ukip supporter but I'm not. I'm politically neutral, apolitical," he told the Financial Times. "I want to make sure that all political parties support a pro-business agenda and realise that, without business, there would be no tax or public sector or jobs."

Addressing the Ukip conference in London, Mr Farage will warn that opening the doors to Romania will stoke a "crime wave" and tell the Conservative and Liberal Democrats to "save their electoral skins" by standing up to Brussels over immigration.

The Ukip leader will tell delegates on the party's 20th anniversary that there will be an "even darker side" to lifting immigration restrictions for Bulgarian and Romania at the beginning of 2014.

"London is already experiencing a Romanian crime wave. There have been an astounding 27,500 arrests in the Metropolitan Police area in the last five years: 92 per cent of ATM crime is committed by Romanians," Mr Farage will say.

"This gets to the heart of the immigration policy that Ukip wants. We should not welcome foreign criminal gangs and we must deport those who have committed offences. Mr Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, are you listening?"

He will also tell delegates to view next year's European elections as a de facto referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, as Ukip looks to build on its success in May's local elections by appealing to eurosceptic Tories.

Mr Farage, again trying to mobilise the protest vote as he did to devastating effect in May's local elections, will say that the European elections will offer voters "a chance to really express their view without worrying which lot get into Downing Street."

He will also make a direct overture to disgruntled Tory voters as he attacks David Cameron's pledge to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU before a referendum in 2017 as nothing more "than a cynical tactic to kick the issue into the long grass".

Mr Farage will tell delegates that the party is once more on the cusp of an electoral breakthrough, having taken 227 council seats in the May elections. He believes that the party could pick up "hundreds" more in next year's local elections and will declare that the party is set to trounce the Liberal Democrats as the "third party in British politics" by the 2015 general election.

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