🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his actions as a youth. He noted that the politician's "evolving" statements had been unconvincing.

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

New Allegations Emerge

A series of inquiries last month detailed the statements of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "would approach me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He walked up to a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have stepped forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either victims of or observed deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The behaviour they recounted span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the individuals were being untruthful.

Commentators 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 party member, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the remarks.

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

He continued: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have somehow misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he urgently needs confront the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Racism in all its forms is completely opposed to the principles of this country and we should not let it to ever become accepted in public life.”

In a separate interview, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to look like a true statesman.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a certain style to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence before the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led such conduct is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an appearance, stating: “Did I say things as a youth that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, nearly 50 years ago.”