Attorney General Urges Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has called on the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his past behaviour. He commented that the leader's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

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, described that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, 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 targets of or saw deeply offensive actions by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were misremembering.

Commentators 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, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his peers [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he has to acknowledge the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would understand as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his stance in an appearance, stating: “Did I say things as a youth that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “never directly attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a further comment: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, nearly 50 years ago.”