🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to former schoolmates who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "evolving" statements had been difficult to believe.

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

New Allegations Come to Light

A published report last month documented the testimony of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour alleged that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil accompanied by two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That included me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have stepped forward; about 20 people have now alleged they were either targets of or observed hurtful actions by Farage.

The incidents they described span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the accusers 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 reprimand a colleague in his party, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the remarks.

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

He continued: “Suggesting that 20 people have somehow misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he must acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become normalised in politics.”

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an appearance, stating: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He commented that he had “not ever purposely really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, decades in the past.”