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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He added that the politician's "evolving" explanations had been less than credible.

“In his defensive responses to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

New Allegations Emerge

A series of inquiries last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including 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 singled out by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil flanked by two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have come forward; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or witnesses to hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they recounted cover the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Evolving Explanations

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the individuals were not telling the truth.

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

They also point to his failure to discipline a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the comments.

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

He added: “Arguing that a group of people have somehow forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he urgently needs address the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the values of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in politics.”

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

“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being written in a certain style to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the report, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his position in an discussion, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He added that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a further comment: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, decades in the past.”