Nigel Farage has accused UK universities of “poisoning the minds of Britain’s young”, after a video emerged of Cambridge students appearing to “trap” US tech billionaire Peter Thiel after he gave a talk at the university.
Mr Thiel, 56, one of the co-founders of PayPal was speaking at the Cambridge student union when two students interrupted him and accused him of genocide. The German-born entrepreneur is the co-founder of Palantir Technologies, which has contracts with Israel.
After the two students were led away and the talk finished, Mr Thiel was confronted by an angry crowd outside the venue. The activists, waving Palestinian flags, were heard chanting and rattling the metal fence keeping them from the business mogul.
Reacting to a video of the mob outside the Cambridge student union, which claimed that Mr Thiel was “trapped”, Reform UK honorary chairman Mr Farage dubbed the protesters “vile”.
In his post on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “To see my friend @peterthiel trapped inside the Cambridge Union by an angry mob is vile.
“I have repeatedly refused invitations to speak and I will not be alone in doing so.
“All public funding of our universities must be up for debate. Our young people’s minds have been poisoned.”
The mob could be heard chanting: “We are the students. We won’t be silenced. Stop the bombing now, now, now, now, now”.
Apparently amused, a separate video showed Mr Thiel approach the students while seeming to record on his phone as he smiled at them.
This comes as Cambridge University’s vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice recently came out in defence of student’s right to erect a pro-Palestine camp on the famous King’s College lawn.
She said the university was “fully committed to freedom of speech within the law, and the right to protest”.
Prof Prentice said: “We will not tolerate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or any other form of racial or religious hatred in our community.
“The university has set out guidance around expectations to the protesters, and the protesters have issued community guidance, which describes a peaceful protest.”
