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The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to former schoolmates who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his past behaviour. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been unconvincing.

“Throughout his replies to valid inquiries, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A published report last month documented the testimony of over a dozen former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

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

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

Since then, more people have emerged; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either subject to or observed deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The behaviour they outlined cover the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were being untruthful.

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

They also reference his reluctance to discipline a colleague in his party, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people 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 said.

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

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he urgently needs acknowledge the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a real 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 drafted in a specific manner to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever was involved in, supported, or led such conduct is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his stance in an appearance, remarking: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage later released a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”