🔗 Share this article

The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to former schoolmates who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

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

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

New Allegations Emerge

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

One, a former pupil, said that a teenage Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, occasionally including a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority stated that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil with two equally tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have come forward; around two dozen people have now stated they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

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

Commentators have pointed out that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also reference his inability to reprimand a party member, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s shifting account about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have somehow misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he urgently needs confront the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Bigotry in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we should not let it to ever become legitimised 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 very careful language that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a particular way to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his position in an appearance, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been published aged 13, so long ago.”