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

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "constantly changing" denials had been unconvincing.

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

Further Testimonies Emerge

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

One, a former pupil, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He walked up to a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; inquiring where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have emerged; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either targets of or observed hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they recounted relate to the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were not telling the truth.

Commentators have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his statements.

They also reference his reluctance to reprimand a colleague in his party, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the remarks.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his peers [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Arguing that 20 people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his offensive behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he has to confront the fears of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become normalised in public life.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being written in a particular way to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s representatives stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an discussion, saying: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and hurt anybody”. Farage later issued a further comment: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been printed aged 13, so long ago.”