Attorney General Demands Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.

The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has called on the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, judging by their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "evolving" explanations had been unconvincing.

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

New Allegations Surface

A published report last month detailed the statements of over a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another student of colour alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He approached a pupil accompanied by two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Since then, more people have come forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either victims of or observed highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the accusers were not telling the truth.

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

They also cite his failure to reprimand a colleague in his party, a MP, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Suggesting that 20 people have somehow misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for prime minister, he has to acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become accepted in politics.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to appear as a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a certain style to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, stating: “Did I say things as a youth that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He added that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, so long ago.”