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The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to former schoolmates who assert he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his actions as a youth. He added that the politician's "evolving" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

New Allegations Surface

A series of inquiries last month documented the testimony of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, described that a teenage Farage "came up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That involved me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Since then, others have come forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

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

They also cite his reluctance to reprimand a party member, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the statements.

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

He continued: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have all misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he has to confront the fears of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a certain style to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters prior to the release of the report, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, supported, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He added that he had “never directly really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage later released a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, decades in the past.”