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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his alleged conduct. 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 stated to a news outlet.

Further Testimonies Surface

A recent investigation last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

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

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

“He walked up to a pupil with two tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have emerged; around two dozen people have now claimed they were either victims of or observed deeply offensive actions by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

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

Commentators have highlighted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his denials.

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

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Claiming that 20 people have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he urgently needs acknowledge the concerns of the Jewish community, and apologise to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become normalised in public life.”

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

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would identify as being drafted in a particular way to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led such conduct is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his explanation in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He said that he had “never directly really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed as a 13-year-old, nearly 50 years ago.”