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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to former schoolmates who assert he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his actions as a youth. He noted that the politician's "evolving" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

Fresh Claims Emerge

A recent investigation last month outlined the accounts of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil alleged that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil flanked by two tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That happened to me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have stepped forward; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to deeply offensive actions by Farage.

The incidents they recounted cover the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the accusers were misremembering.

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

They also reference his reluctance to discipline a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the statements.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his peers [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He went on to say: “Claiming that a group of people have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he has to address the fears of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Prejudice in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would recognise as being drafted in a particular way to communicate, but also not to say something,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever took part in, condoned, or led such conduct is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his explanation in an appearance, saying: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently released a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”