Attorney General Calls On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Racism and Antisemitism.

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who assert he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his actions as a youth. He noted that the leader's "constantly changing" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

New Allegations Come to Light

A published report last month detailed the accounts of several former classmates of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic 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 walked up to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That happened to me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have emerged; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either victims of or observed highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were misremembering.

Commentators have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also reference his failure to discipline a colleague in his party, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the remarks.

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

He went on to say: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have somehow forgotten the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he urgently needs confront the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is abhorrent to the principles of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

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

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the publication of the report, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his position in an discussion, remarking: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could see as being banter, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, decades in the past.”