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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "shifting" statements had been difficult to believe.

“In his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

Further Testimonies Emerge

A recent investigation last month detailed the statements of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was about nine, he was singled out by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That happened to me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have emerged; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or observed highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

The alleged events they described cover the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

Critics have highlighted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his statements.

They also point to his inability to discipline a party member, a MP, 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 evolving narrative about his behaviour to his peers [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He added: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for prime minister, he must acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the many people 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 must not permit it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a true statesman.

“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being written in a certain style to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications before the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever took part in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, stating: “Have I said things as a youth that you could interpret as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He said that he had “never directly sought to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”