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The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He commented that the politician's "shifting" explanations had been less than credible.

“Throughout his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a news outlet.

New Allegations Come to Light

A series of inquiries last month detailed the statements of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, said that a teenage Farage "came up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either victims of or observed highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

The incidents they recounted span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were not telling the truth.

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

They also point to his reluctance to discipline a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his peers [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He continued: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Call for Leadership

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

“Bigotry in all its forms is abhorrent to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in society.”

In a other comments, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

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

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his stance in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things as a youth that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He added that he had “never directly sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been reported as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”