Top Law Officer Calls On Reform UK Leader to Say Sorry Over Alleged Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.

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

Hermer remarked that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He added that the politician's "constantly changing" statements had been difficult to believe.

“Throughout his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

Further Testimonies Surface

A published report last month outlined the statements of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He approached a pupil flanked by two tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That happened to me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, more people have come forward; around two dozen people have now stated they were either targets of or witnesses to highly inappropriate actions by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were misremembering.

Commentators have noted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his denials.

They also cite his inability to reprimand a colleague in his party, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s shifting account about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have all forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he urgently needs confront the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Racism in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

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

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a specific manner to communicate, but also not to say something,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his stance in an discussion, stating: “Did I say things as a youth that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”