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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "shifting" explanations had been unconvincing.

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

New Allegations Emerge

A recent investigation last month documented the statements of several one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, said that a teenage Farage "would approach me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you said you were from.”

Since then, others have come forward; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either victims of or saw highly inappropriate actions by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

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

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

They also reference his inability to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the statements.

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

He added: “Arguing that a group of people have all forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he must address the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Bigotry in all its forms is abhorrent to the values of this country and we should not let it to ever become accepted in politics.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a specific manner to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence before the publication of the report, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an appearance, saying: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He said that he had “never directly attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently released a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”