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The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his past behaviour. He noted that the leader's "evolving" explanations had been unconvincing.

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

Fresh Claims Surface

A series of inquiries last month documented the accounts of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a 13-year-old Farage "would approach me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two equally tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, more people have stepped forward; about 20 people have now alleged they were either victims of or saw highly inappropriate actions by Farage.

The incidents they recounted cover the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were not telling the truth.

Observers have noted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also reference his failure to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she expressed views about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the comments.

“His constantly changing story 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 is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he has to acknowledge the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is abhorrent to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in politics.”

In a other comments, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being drafted in a certain style to say something, but also not to say something,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the report, Farage’s representatives claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things as a youth that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Perhaps.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, decades in the past.”