Top Law Officer Calls On Reform UK Leader to Apologise Over Alleged Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.

The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "shifting" statements had been unconvincing.

“In his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A published report last month detailed the testimony of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, others have come forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or saw hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

The alleged events they described span the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Changing Stories

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the individuals were being untruthful.

Commentators have highlighted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his responses.

They also cite his failure to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his peers [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have somehow forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he has to confront the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is abhorrent to the principles of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in society.”

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a real leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being written in a certain style to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications before the publication of the report, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his position in an discussion, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently released a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, decades in the past.”