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The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to former schoolmates who claim he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their testimonies of his actions as a youth. He commented that the leader's "constantly changing" explanations had been unconvincing.

“In his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

New Allegations Come to Light

A recent investigation last month documented the accounts of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the person said. “That involved me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either targets of or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they described relate to the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were not telling the truth.

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

They also reference his failure to discipline a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the remarks.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer said.

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

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he urgently needs confront the anxieties of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in society.”

In a different discussion, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would identify as being drafted in a specific manner to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an discussion, stating: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being banter, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”