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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, judging by their testimonies of his actions as a youth. He noted that the leader's "evolving" denials had been difficult to believe.

“During his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

New Allegations Surface

A recent investigation last month detailed the accounts of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

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

Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That included me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Since then, more people have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to hurtful conduct by Farage.

The alleged events they described span the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were being untruthful.

Commentators have pointed out that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his responses.

They also point to his inability to sanction a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the remarks.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He went on to say: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have somehow forgotten the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he must confront the fears of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards 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 “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a genuine 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 written in a certain style to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led such conduct is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things as a youth that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Perhaps.”

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