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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has called on Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "evolving" denials had been unconvincing.

“During his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Further Testimonies Come to Light

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

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate 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 older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

After the story broke, others have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to deeply offensive actions by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

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

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

They also reference his inability to sanction a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the remarks.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he has to confront the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is abhorrent to the principles of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become accepted in society.”

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a particular way to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the report, Farage’s representatives stated that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his stance in an interview, saying: “Did I say things decades ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some way? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, decades in the past.”