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The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his past behaviour. He noted that the leader's "shifting" explanations had been unconvincing.

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

Fresh Claims Emerge

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

One, a former pupil, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil with two tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

After the story broke, others have emerged; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or witnesses to highly inappropriate actions by Farage.

The incidents they outlined cover the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the individuals were being untruthful.

Critics have highlighted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his responses.

They also point to his inability to discipline a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the comments.

“His constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he has to acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in society.”

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

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would recognise as being drafted in a certain style to say something, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led such conduct is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his stance in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “never directly sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently released a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”