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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to former schoolmates who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his past behaviour. He added that the politician's "evolving" statements had been unconvincing.

“In his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

New Allegations Surface

A series of inquiries last month detailed the statements of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He came over to a pupil with two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Since then, more people have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

The incidents they recounted relate to the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were misremembering.

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

They also reference his inability to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his peers [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He added: “Suggesting that 20 people have all misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a serious contender for prime minister, he urgently needs address the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become accepted in society.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a certain style to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led such conduct is strongly rejected”.

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

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage later released a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, so long ago.”