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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He noted that the leader's "evolving" denials had been less than credible.

“In his defensive responses to legitimate questions, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

Fresh Claims Surface

A series of inquiries last month detailed the testimony of several one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil stated that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That involved me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have come forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either victims of or saw deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they described relate to the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the accusers were being untruthful.

Critics have pointed out that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also cite his reluctance to sanction a party member, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the remarks.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He continued: “Arguing that a group of people have all misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he must acknowledge the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we must not permit it to ever become accepted in society.”

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being drafted in a certain style to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters before the publication of the report, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his explanation in an interview, saying: “Did I say things decades ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, decades in the past.”