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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

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

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

New Allegations Come to Light

A series of inquiries last month documented the accounts of several former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He approached a pupil with two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have stepped forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either victims of or saw deeply offensive actions by Farage.

The behaviour they described relate to the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Evolving Explanations

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

Commentators have pointed out that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his denials.

They also reference his failure to reprimand a party member, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later said sorry for the statements.

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

He continued: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have all forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he must address the concerns of the Jewish community, and apologise to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in society.”

In a different discussion, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a particular way to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the publication of the report, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, saying: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, decades in the past.”