Attorney General Urges Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Racism and Antisemitism.

The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to former schoolmates who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his alleged conduct. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

Fresh Claims Emerge

A published report last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, described that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority stated that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have stepped forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either subject to or saw hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they described span the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Evolving Explanations

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

Commentators have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his statements.

They also point to his inability to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of black and brown people 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 went on to say: “Arguing that a group of people have somehow forgotten the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he urgently needs confront the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

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

In a different discussion, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being written in a particular way to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his explanation in an interview, saying: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in some way? Perhaps.”

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