Top Law Officer Urges Reform UK Leader to Apologise Over Alleged Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.

The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, based on their testimonies of his past behaviour. He commented that the politician's "shifting" statements had been less than credible.

“During his replies to valid inquiries, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Emerge

A series of inquiries last month outlined the testimony of several ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He came over to a pupil flanked by two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That involved me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

Since then, more people have come forward; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The behaviour they outlined span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the individuals were misremembering.

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

They also reference his inability to reprimand a party member, a MP, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he urgently needs confront the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become accepted in society.”

In a other comments, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to look like a true statesman.

“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would identify as being written in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, saying: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “never directly attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage later issued a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”