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The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who allege he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his alleged conduct. He added that the politician's "constantly changing" explanations had been less than credible.

“In his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A published report last month outlined the accounts of over a dozen former classmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, recalled that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil stated that when he was roughly nine years old, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have emerged; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or saw hurtful conduct by Farage.

The behaviour they outlined span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were being untruthful.

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

They also reference his reluctance to reprimand a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the statements.

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

He went on to say: “Claiming that 20 people have all forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he must acknowledge the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become accepted in politics.”

In a different discussion, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would identify as being drafted in a specific manner to say something, but also not to say something,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications before the publication of the investigation, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Perhaps.”

He commented that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently put out 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.”