🔗 Share this article

The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their descriptions of his actions as a youth. He noted that the politician's "evolving" explanations had been difficult to believe.

“Throughout his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a publication.

Further Testimonies Emerge

A series of inquiries last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would approach me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was subjected to similar treatment by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil accompanied by two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That happened to me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have stepped forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either targets of or saw deeply offensive actions by Farage.

The behaviour they outlined span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were not telling the truth.

Observers have noted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his denials.

They also cite his failure to sanction a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the comments.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that 20 people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he urgently needs acknowledge the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

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

In a different discussion, the Chancellor said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to be considered a true statesman.

“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would recognise as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also not to say something,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the report, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his explanation in an interview, saying: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”