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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his past behaviour. He added that the politician's "shifting" explanations had been unconvincing.

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

Fresh Claims Surface

A published report last month outlined the testimony of several former classmates of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That involved me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, more people have come forward; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either subject to or saw highly inappropriate actions by Farage.

The incidents they recounted cover the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were misremembering.

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

They also cite his reluctance to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his peers [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He went on to say: “Arguing that 20 people have somehow misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for prime minister, he has to acknowledge the fears of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Racism 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, a senior politician said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his position in an interview, saying: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a modern light today in some way? Possibly.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later issued a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”