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The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their testimonies of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "evolving" denials had been less than credible.

“Throughout his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

New Allegations Emerge

A recent investigation last month detailed the accounts of over a dozen former classmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding 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 17-year-old Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil accompanied by two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That happened to me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have emerged; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or observed hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they described span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the accusers were being untruthful.

Critics have noted that Farage has neglected 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 black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the remarks.

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

He continued: “Suggesting that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for prime minister, he must address the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become normalised in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a particular way to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the report, Farage’s representatives stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led such conduct is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He added that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage later issued a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”