🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his alleged conduct. He noted that the politician's "constantly changing" explanations had been less than credible.

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

New Allegations Surface

A recent investigation last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; asking 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 stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either targets of or witnesses to hurtful actions by Farage.

The incidents they outlined span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

Critics have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his responses.

They also cite his failure to discipline a party member, a MP, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the statements.

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

He went on to say: “Suggesting that a group of people have somehow forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he has to address the fears of the Jewish people, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice 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 other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a particular way to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s representatives stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, supported, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his stance in an discussion, saying: “Did I say things as a youth that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage later released a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, decades in the past.”