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The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has called on Nigel Farage to apologise to former schoolmates who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his actions as a youth. He noted that the politician's "shifting" statements had been less than credible.

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

New Allegations Surface

A series of inquiries last month outlined the accounts of several one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil flanked by two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were misremembering.

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

They also cite his reluctance to sanction a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

“His constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Claiming that 20 people have all misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he urgently needs confront the fears of the Jewish people, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the values of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become normalised in public life.”

In a different discussion, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

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

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the report, Farage’s legal team stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, supported, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an discussion, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported as a 13-year-old, nearly 50 years ago.”