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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has called on Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his actions as a youth. He noted that the leader's "shifting" explanations had been difficult to believe.

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

Further Testimonies Emerge

A series of inquiries last month outlined the testimony of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He walked up to a pupil with two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That involved me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Since then, more people have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or observed deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The behaviour they described cover the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were not telling the truth.

Critics have highlighted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also point to his inability to reprimand 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 statements.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his offensive behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he must acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

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

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a particular way to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications prior to the release of the report, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his position in an discussion, stating: “Have I said things as a youth that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a modern light today in some way? Yes.”

He added that he had “never directly really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage later released a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, decades in the past.”