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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been unconvincing.

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

New Allegations Emerge

A published report last month documented the accounts of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That involved me on three occasions; inquiring where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Since then, more people have come forward; about 20 people have now alleged they were either subject to or saw highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were not telling the truth.

Commentators have highlighted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his denials.

They also cite his inability to discipline a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the remarks.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He went on to say: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have all misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a credible figure for prime minister, he has to address the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we must not permit it to ever become accepted in politics.”

In a different discussion, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would identify as being written in a particular way to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an appearance, remarking: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “never directly really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards released a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, decades in the past.”