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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their school days.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He commented that the politician's "evolving" explanations had been less than credible.

“During his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a news outlet.

Further Testimonies Come to Light

A recent investigation last month documented the statements of several former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and growl: ‘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 pupil from an ethnic minority alleged 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 equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘different’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you said you were from.”

Since then, more people have come forward; about 20 people have now alleged they were either subject to or saw hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the individuals 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 responses.

They also reference his inability to sanction a fellow Reform MP, 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 constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for the top job, he urgently needs confront the concerns of the Jewish people, and apologise to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the values 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 “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being written in a specific manner to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters before the release of the report, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his position in an discussion, stating: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Yes.”

He added that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, decades in the past.”