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

Hermer stated that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his past behaviour. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

“In his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a news outlet.

New Allegations Come to Light

A recent investigation last month outlined the statements of several former classmates of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle 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 Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour alleged that when he was about nine, he was singled out by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you said you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have come forward; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either subject to or saw hurtful actions by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the former classmates were being untruthful.

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

They also cite his failure to sanction a party member, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his peers [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He went on to say: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he has to acknowledge the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

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

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to look like a real leader.

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

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers claimed that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his explanation in an appearance, saying: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “not once intentionally attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a further comment: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”