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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to former schoolmates who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.

Hermer said that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his past behaviour. He added that the leader's "evolving" explanations had been difficult to believe.

“In his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

Fresh Claims Emerge

A recent investigation last month documented the statements of over a dozen former classmates of Farage from a private college.

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

Another student of colour stated that when he was roughly nine years old, 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 individual said. “That involved me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you said you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have emerged; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either subject to or saw highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were misremembering.

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

They also reference 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 said sorry for the comments.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow forgotten the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for prime minister, he must confront the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in politics.”

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a particular way to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence before the release of the report, Farage’s lawyers claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led such conduct is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an discussion, stating: “Did I say things decades ago that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, so long ago.”