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The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he racially abused them during their school days.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his past behaviour. He added that the leader's "evolving" statements had been less than credible.

“Throughout his defensive responses to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

Fresh Claims Emerge

A series of inquiries last month documented the testimony of several ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, said that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil alleged that when he was about nine, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil accompanied by two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That included 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, more people have stepped forward; about 20 people have now stated they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were not telling the truth.

Observers have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his statements.

They also cite his reluctance to discipline a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the remarks.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have all misremembered 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 high office, he has to confront the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Prejudice in all its forms is abhorrent to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become accepted in public life.”

In a different discussion, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to be considered a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the release of the report, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, saying: “Have I said things as a youth that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

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