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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

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

“In his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

Further Testimonies Emerge

A recent investigation last month detailed the testimony of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That included me on three occasions; 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, additional individuals have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either targets of or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The alleged events they described cover the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were being untruthful.

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

They also reference his failure to reprimand a colleague in his party, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Arguing that 20 people have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he must acknowledge the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become accepted in society.”

In a different discussion, the Chancellor said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to appear as a genuine leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would recognise as being drafted in a specific manner to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, supported, or led such conduct is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, stating: “Did I say things as a youth that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Yes.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally attempted to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”