Top Law Officer Calls On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.

The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his actions as a youth. He added that the leader's "constantly changing" denials had been less than credible.

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

New Allegations Emerge

A published report last month outlined the accounts of over a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority stated that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil accompanied by two tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That happened to me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, others have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or observed hurtful conduct by Farage.

The behaviour they described relate to the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Changing Stories

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

Critics have pointed out that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his denials.

They also cite his failure to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the comments.

“His constantly changing story about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he has to acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the values of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become accepted in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a particular way to communicate, but also not to say something,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters before the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led this behaviour is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his stance in an discussion, remarking: “Have I said things as a youth that you could see as being banter, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage later issued a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”