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The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged 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 "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their descriptions of his past behaviour. He noted that the politician's "constantly changing" explanations had been unconvincing.

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

Fresh Claims Emerge

A recent investigation last month outlined the accounts of several ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That happened to me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either subject to or observed deeply offensive actions by Farage.

The behaviour they described cover the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Changing Stories

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the individuals were misremembering.

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

They also reference his inability to sanction a colleague in his party, Sarah Pochin, after she expressed views about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

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

Demand for Accountability

“If he wants to be seen as a serious contender for the top job, he urgently needs acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the principles of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would identify as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, stating: “Have I said things as a youth that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a further comment: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”