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

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his past behaviour. He noted that the leader's "evolving" denials had been difficult to believe.

“Throughout his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

Further Testimonies Emerge

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

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "would approach 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 roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil accompanied by two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, others have emerged; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or witnesses to deeply offensive actions by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

Commentators have pointed out that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his statements.

They also cite his failure to sanction a party member, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He continued: “Claiming that 20 people have all misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he urgently needs address the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in politics.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the report, Farage’s legal team stated that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an discussion, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some way? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “never directly sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards 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, decades in the past.”