🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has called on Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their school days.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He noted that the politician's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

“In his defensive responses to legitimate questions, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

New Allegations Come to Light

A published report last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

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

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

“He came over to a pupil accompanied by two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have emerged; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either targets of or saw deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they described 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 claimed the accusers were not telling the truth.

Commentators have highlighted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his denials.

They also point to his inability to reprimand a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks 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 schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for the top job, he has to acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

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

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being crafted in a particular way to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led this behaviour is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his stance in an appearance, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “never directly attempted to go and upset anybody”. Farage later put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”