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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has called on Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He noted that the leader's "evolving" explanations had been unconvincing.

“During his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Further Testimonies Surface

A series of inquiries last month detailed the statements of several former classmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "came up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged 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 equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have come forward; around two dozen people have now stated they were either subject to or saw highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

The alleged events they described span the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were being untruthful.

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

They also reference his inability to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He added: “Arguing that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his offensive behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

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

“Racism in all its forms is abhorrent to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in society.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also not to say something,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an discussion, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, decades in the past.”