🔗 Share this article

The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, judging by their descriptions of his past behaviour. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been less than credible.

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

Fresh Claims Emerge

A series of inquiries last month outlined the testimony of over a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "would approach me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil accompanied by two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘other’,” the person said. “That included me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have come forward; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or observed hurtful conduct by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the accusers were not telling the truth.

Observers have pointed out that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his statements.

They also point to his reluctance to discipline a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the remarks.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have somehow misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he must confront the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Bigotry in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we must not permit it to ever become accepted in politics.”

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being drafted in a particular way to say something, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his stance in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “never directly sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a further comment: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed aged 13, decades in the past.”