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

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He added that the leader's "evolving" denials had been unconvincing.

“In his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Emerge

A published report last month outlined the testimony of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He approached a pupil flanked by two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have stepped forward; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The alleged events they recounted relate to the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the individuals were not telling the truth.

Commentators have pointed out that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his statements.

They also reference his reluctance to reprimand a party member, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the statements.

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

He went on to say: “Claiming that 20 people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his offensive behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he urgently needs acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is abhorrent to the principles of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in society.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a specific manner to communicate, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an appearance, stating: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Yes.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”