🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who assert he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "shifting" statements had been unconvincing.

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

Fresh Claims Emerge

A series of inquiries last month outlined the testimony of several 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 ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He came over to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have emerged; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either victims of or saw deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the individuals were misremembering.

Observers have highlighted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his denials.

They also reference his inability to reprimand a colleague in his party, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he urgently needs acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

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

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

“It is very telling 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 say something, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, remarking: “Did I say things decades ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He added that he had “never directly really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a further comment: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been printed aged 13, so long ago.”