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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has called on Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "evolving" denials had been difficult to believe.

“In his defensive responses to valid inquiries, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Further Testimonies Emerge

A published report last month outlined the accounts of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the person said. “That included me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have come forward; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The alleged events they recounted cover the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the former classmates were misremembering.

Observers have highlighted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his responses.

They also cite his failure to sanction a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that 20 people have somehow misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he has to acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in society.”

In a different discussion, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to look like a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being drafted in a specific manner to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, supported, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”