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The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he racially abused them during their school days.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He noted that the leader's "constantly changing" statements had been less than credible.

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

New Allegations Surface

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

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "would approach me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil stated that when he was about nine, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That included me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have stepped forward; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The behaviour they described span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Evolving Explanations

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates 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 statements.

They also reference his failure to reprimand a party member, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s shifting account about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have all misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he must acknowledge the fears of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we should not let it to ever become accepted in society.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

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

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his position in an appearance, stating: “Did I say things decades ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage later issued a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”