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The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to former schoolmates who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "evolving" explanations had been less than credible.

“Throughout his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

Fresh Claims Come to Light

A series of inquiries last month documented the accounts of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, said that a teenage Farage "would approach me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He approached a pupil accompanied by two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have come forward; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or saw deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

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

Critics have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his statements.

They also cite his failure 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 expressed regret for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he must confront the concerns of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a other comments, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a specific manner to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his position in an discussion, remarking: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He added that he had “never directly really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”