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The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their testimonies of his actions as a youth. He commented that the leader's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

“Throughout his defensive responses to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

New Allegations Emerge

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

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘other’,” the person said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have emerged; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

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

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

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

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

He continued: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for the top job, he has to confront the fears of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the principles of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised 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 recognise as being written in a certain style to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an interview, saying: “Have I said things as a youth that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He added that he had “not ever purposely sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a further comment: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”